The Effects of Meaning-centered Play on Spiritual Sensitivity of Children: A Randomized Controlled Trial

Spiritual sensitivity is the child’s ability to be spiritually aware of what is happening both outside and within him or herself, and the further ability to respond accordingly. On the other hand, play is one of the strategies to develop children’s capabilities. Yet, there is limited information about the relationship of play and spiritual sensitivity. The present study aimed to evaluate the effects of meaning-centered play on children’s spiritual sensitivity.

This two-group randomized controlled trial was conducted on 120 children aged 10–11 who were recruited from two centers affiliated to the institute for intellectual development in Mashhad, Iran, by convenience sampling between May 2016 to January 2018. Samples were allocated to intervention (60) and control (60) groups through random allocation. In the intervention group, a meaning-centered play intervention was implemented in twelve 45-minute sessions, twice a week and for six weeks. The control group had the usual trend of the center’s plays and programs. Spiritual sensitivity was measured via the Spiritual Sensitivity Scale for Children (SSSC) before and after the end of the intervention. The data were analyzed via the SPSS software (v. 20.0) using Chi-square, independent-sample t test, Mann-Whitney U and Wilcoxon signed-rank tests. The significance level was less than 0.05.

Although the groups did not significantly differ from each other concerning the pretest mean scores of spiritual sensitivity and its subscales (P>0.05), the posttest values of these scores in the intervention group were significantly greater than the control group (p <0.05). After the intervention, the mean scores of spiritual sensitivity significantly increased in the intervention group (Before: 65.0±13.6, after: 79.4±12.3, p <0.001), but no significant increase was observed in the control group (Before: 66.7±14.6, after: 67.4±12.3, P=0.604).

According to the results, it can be suggested that meaning-centered play program can be used in play room in schools, child care centers and hospitals to improve the spiritual sensitivity among children.