Evaluating the Effectiveness of Philosophy Education for Children and Cognitive Behavioral Group Play Therapy on Social Function of Children with Separation Anxiety Disorder

Abstract

The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of philosophy education for children and group play therapy with cognitive-behavioral method on social performance of children with separation anxiety disorder. Research method in this study; The quasi-experimental was pretest and posttest with the control group. The statistical population was all children referred to Shamim Counseling Center in Kermanshah. The sample group consisted of 30 children with separation anxiety disorder. The sample was selected by purposive sampling and alternative by random sampling. First, social skills questionnair (Matson et al., 1983). Implemented for all three groups (pre-test). Then, the participants of one of the intervention groups received the philosophy training program for group child play therapy in 10 sessions of 60 minutes once a week, and the other intervention group received group play therapy with cognitive-behavioral method in 10 sessions of 60 minutes. ; While the control group did not receive any educational intervention. Then all three groups were re-evaluated with the mentioned questionnair (post-test). The follow-up stage was held 2 months after the post-test. The results showed that both methods in the intervention groups had a significant effect on increasing social performance. Of course, the effectiveness of the philosophy education program for children has been more than group play therapy in a cognitive-behavioral way.

Keywords

• separation anxiety
• group play therapy
• philosophy for the child
• social functioning