The effectiveness of playing on externalizing problems in preschool children with behavioral problems

Many children have behavioral and affective problems in early childhood that may continue during puberty and even adulthood. So, many researchers have focused on the prevention and therapy of such problems. This study aimed to determine the effectiveness of playing on externalizing problems in preschool children with behavioral problems.

Five kindergartens were selected at convenience from 16th district of Tehran. All mothers completed the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) voluntarily. Thirty children, who had high scores (34 and higher) in CBCL, were considered as having externalized problems and were divided to intervention and control groups equally and randomly. Children in intervention group were divided to 5 subgroups (3 children in each) and participated in 16 sessions (2 sessions weekly) receiving playing intervention, and the control group received mainstream program in kindergarten. All mothers completed CBCL again after intervention. Analysis of covariance was used for data analysis.

The findings showed that the effect of playing on decreasing the externalizing problems, aggression and ignoring rules was significant in preschool children with behavioral problems.

Playing is probably an effective method for decreasing externalizing problems in preschool children. It can be used to prevent from causing or continuing antisocial behaviors in adulthood.