The Effectiveness of Child-Parent Relationship Play Therapy on Emotion Regulation and Subjective Vitality in Students with Learning Disabilities in the COVID Pandemic 

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of child-parent relationships play therapy on emotion regulation and subjective vitality in students with learning disorders. The research was a quasi-experimental study (pre-test-post-test with a control group). The statistical population consisted of students from third-grade to sixth-grade with learning disabilities who had been referred to the learning disability centers of Birjand during the school year of 2020-2021. Thirty students were selected and divided randomly into experimental and control groups. The Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (Gross & John, 2003) and Subjective vitality scale (Ryan & Frederick, 1997) assessment instrument had been used. The plan based on child-parent relationship therapy was performed for the experimental group during ten virtual sessions. The results of multivariate and univariate analysis of covariance showed play therapy based on child-parent relationships had a significant effect on emotion regulation and subjective vitality in students with learning disorders. However, it did not affect the combination of dependent variables of emotion regulation and subjective vitality. Even though the effective use of all emotion regulation strategies has an effect on the well-being and vitality of students with learning disabilities, using only two strategies of Reappraisal and Suppression can’t increase higher subjective vitality in these students undoubtedly. It can be concluded that the treatment in question affects the emotion regulation and subjective vitality of students with learning disabilities and can be used to help them.

Keywords

• child-parent relationship play therapy
• covid pandemic
• emotion regulation
• learning disabilities
• subjective vitality