The Effectiveness of Play Therapy on Extraverted Problems among Children with Oppositional Defiant Disorder

Oppositional defiant disorder is one of the behavioral disorders, the most significant manifestation of which is the sustained pattern of repetitive behavior of negativity, stubbornness, disobedience, and hostility to the manifestations of power, which causes significant clinical disruption in academic, social and occupational functioning. The aim of thisstudy was to determine the effectiveness of play therapy on exogenous problems among children with oppositional defiant disorder.

The present study was of applied and semi-experimental design with pretest-posttest and control group.The statistical population of this study included all children with oppositional defiant disorder in Babol in 2019, among whom 60 were selected purposefully and using random sampling method and categorized in two groups of play therapy and control group, each group received 30 people. Data were collected using child behavioral problems questionnaire in three periods of pre-test, post-test, and follow-up. Play therapy was performed in ten two-hour weekly sessions for the experimental group. Inferential analysis, univariate analysis of covariance was used via SPSS software version 22. The significance level of the tests was 0.05.

In the experimental group, the mean (SD) of externalizing problems decreased from 40.6 (2.5) in pre-test to 24.6 (2.1) in post-test, and 25.6 (2.5) in the follow-up (P<0.001). However, in the control group, the mean (SD) of externalizing problems increased from 39.4 (1.9) in pre-test to 39.3 (2.1) in post-test, and 39.4 (0.2) in follow-up, which was not significantly different.

The study showed that play therapy reduced exogenous problems among children with oppositional defiant disorder. This treatment can be used to improve psychological problems in children with oppositional defiant disorder.