The Effect of Cognitive-Behavioral Group Play Therapy on Behavioral Disorders in Elementary First-grade Female Students

The purpose of this study was to investigate effectiveness of the cognitive - behavioral group play therapy on the cognitive and behavioral disorders, such as separation anxiety, attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder, and stubbornness - disobedience among the elementary female students. The statistical population consisted of 70 female students studying at the first grade of elementary school in Zahedan City of Iran in the academic year of 2017-2018. The available sampling method was applied and 22 students who had behavioral disorders were selected and randomly divided into the intervention and control groups. The intervention group received group play therapy based on the cognitive and behavioral model for 10 sessions. The Child Symptom Inventory-4 questionnaire was also administered for data collection. The results of data analysis using multivariate analysis of covariance showed that play therapy was effective in reducing the children's separation anxiety, attention deficit / hyperactivity disorder, and stubbornness - disobedience (p<0.05). As a result, play therapy intervention can be applied to reduce the children's behavioral disorders.