Comparing the Effectiveness of Mindfulness Training and Art-Play Therapy on the Self-Esteem of Elementary School Boys

The purpose of this study was to compare the effectiveness of art-play therapy and mindfulness training on the self-esteem of male students of the sixth year of elementary school.

This research was conducted with a semi-experimental method with a pre-test-post-test design with a control group. The statistical population of the research included male students of the sixth year of elementary school in Bukan city in the academic year of 2019-2019. The sampling method in the present study was a multi-stage random method. First, three elementary schools in Bukan city were selected by random sampling method, and one class was randomly selected from the sixth classes of each school. Then, 45 students were selected and randomly assigned to two experimental groups and one control group (15 people in each group). The experimental groups were trained in two different intervention programs, art-play therapy and mindfulness training. Self-Esteem Questionnaire (SEI) was used as a research tool for pre-test and post-test. For data analysis, statistical methods of multivariate covariance analysis and Benferroni's pairwise comparisons test were used.

The results of data analysis showed that there is a significant difference between the experimental groups and the control group in terms of the self-esteem variable in the post-test stage (P≤.05). Other results of the research showed that there is no significant difference between mindfulness training and art-play therapy between the two groups, and the effectiveness of both interventions was the same.

Based on the findings, mindfulness training and play therapy as effective intervention methods in the growth and improvement of the self-esteem of elementary school children can be used by teachers and educators.