The effectiveness of play therapy on reducing separation anxiety disorder and isolation of elementary students

Evidence has shown that play therapy has been effective in reducing behavioral disorders, but can it be effective in improving social anxiety disorder, segregation, and isolation of students? The female students were elementary school students. This study was a quasi-experimental study with pre-test and post-test design with a control group. The statistical population included all first-grade female students of Haj Mohammad Jafari Namin School (68 students). Among them, the samples of students with the highest anxiety scores on the Separation Anxiety and Isolation Scale of (Mani Kawasgar ,2009) were selected and randomly divided into experimental and control groups. The experimental group received 10 sessions of play therapy intervention and no interventions were performed on the control group. Students' anxiety screening test score was considered as a pre-test and after the intervention, children's anxiety test was performed on both groups again and its score was considered as a post-test. Data were analyzed using analysis of covariance and independent group t-test. The results showed that play therapy had a positive and significant effect on reducing separation anxiety and isolation in children because it was) P <0.5(. Play therapy can be effective in treating separation anxiety and isolation students.