Dee C. Ray

The Efficacy of Play Therapy With Children: A Meta-Analytic Review of Treatment Outcomes

The efficacy of psychological interventions for children has long been debated among mental health professionals; however, only recently has this issue received national attention, with the U.S. Public Health Service (2000) emphasizing the critical need for early intervention and empirically validated treatments tailored to children’s maturational needs. Play therapy is a developmentally responsive intervention widely used by child therapists but often criticized for lacking an adequate research base to support its growing practice. A meta-analysis of 93 controlled outcome studies (published 1953‐2000) was conducted to assess the overall efficacy of play therapy and to determine factors that might impact its effectiveness. The overall treatment effect for play therapy interventions was 0.80 standard deviations. Further analysis revealed that effects were more positive for humanistic than for nonhumanistic treatments and that using parents in play therapy produced the largest effects. Play therapy appeared equally effective across age, gender, and presenting issue.

Play therapy with children exhibiting symptoms of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

Sixty elementary school age children qualified as symptomatic of attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) were randomly assigned to 1 of 2 treatment conditions: child-centered play therapy (CCPT) or reading mentoring (RM). All children participated in 16 individual 30-min sessions in the schools. Results indicated that children who participated in 16 sessions of CCPT and RM demonstrated statistically significant improvement on the ADHD and student characteristics domains, as well as the Anxiety/Withdrawal and Learning Disability subscales of the Index of Teaching Stress and the ADHD Index of the Conners Teacher Rating Scale—Revised: Short Form. Children who participated in CCPT demonstrated statistically significant improvement over RM children on the student characteristics domain and on the Emotional Lability and Anxiety/Withdrawal subscales of the Index of Teaching Stress.

FILIAL/FAMILY PLAY THERAPY: AN INTERVENTION FOR CUSTODIAL GRANDPARENTS AND THEIR GRANDCHILDREN

Families headed by custodial grandparents form an increasing portion of the population with particular needs. In the last decade there has been a significant rise in the number of grandparents assuming primary responsibility for their grandchildren whose parents are absent or incapacitated. Grandparents encounter many challenges in adjusting to their changing role; and their grandchildren, most of whom are disconnected from their parents, face an increased risk of emotional/ behavioral difficulties. The Filial/Family Play Therapy (FFPT) grandparent training model is a unique intervention for custodial grandparents aimed at fostering healthy parent‐child relationships through training and supervising grandparents in the basic methodology of child‐centered play therapy, while providing them with the emotional support they need. Grandparents conduct weekly play therapy‐type sessions with their grandchild; learning to convey acceptance, empathy, and encouragement, as well as master the skills of effective lim...

Impact of play therapy on parent–child relationship stress at a mental health training setting

This study investigated the impact of Child-Centred Play Therapy (CCPT)/Non-Directive Play Therapy on parent–child relationship stress using archival data from 202 child clients divided into clinical behavioural groups over 3–74 sessions in a mental health training setting. Results demonstrated significant differences between pre and post testing on the Parenting Stress Index. CCPT appeared to be especially effective with children identified with clinical externalising behavioural problems, combined externalising and internalising behavioural problems, and children who were not categorised with clinical problem behaviours but whose parents sought counselling services for them. There were also significant differences determined by length of therapy. Results are discussed concerning implications for clinical practice and further research.

Filial/Family Play Therapy for Single Parents of Young Children Attending Community Colleges.

Many single parents are attending institutions of higher education such as community colleges to qualify for employment that will ensure the economic security of their families. Helping both single parents who are attending community colleges and their children adjust to changing roles and the accompanying stress presents a unique challenge. Filial/family play therapy training is a highly effective intervention for single parents attending community colleges. It has preventive, educational, and clinical implications. This article focuses on the use of filial/family play therapy with single parents attending community colleges as an effective intervention for improving the present and future welfare of these families.Many single parents are attending institutions of higher education such as community colleges to qualify for employment that will ensure the economic security of their families. Helping both single parents who are attending community colleges and their children adjust to changing roles and the accompanying stress presents a unique challenge. Filial/family play therapy training is a highly effective intervention for single parents attending community colleges. It has preventive, educational, and clinical implications. This article focuses on the use of filial/family play therapy with single parents attending community colleges as an effective intervention for improving the present and future welfare of these families.

Differential impact of play therapy on developmental levels of children.

The purpose of this preliminary study was to explore the impact of childcentered play therapy (CCPT) on children identified within J. Piaget’s (1962) preoperational and concrete operations developmental stages. Using archival data, this study used a 3-wave repeated measures analysis of variance design to analyze the impact of CCPT on 24 children between the ages of 3 and 8 who received 19 –23 individual CCPT sessions. On the basis of the child’s age, children were evenly divided into 2 treatment groups of preoperational or operational developmental stage. A pretest, approximate midpoint, and posttest administration of the Parenting Stress Index (R. Abidin, 1995) was collected for use in the analysis. Preliminary results of this study revealed statistically significant differences in the impact of CCPT for children of different developmental stages.

Choice of Holland's Social Type College Majors for U.S. Racial/Ethnic Groups

We used national data to study the longitudinal effects of several variables on choice of Holland (1997) social type college majors versus other majors. We examined these effects for four of the five major U.S. racial/ethnic groups, Asian/Pacific Islanders, Hispanics, Blacks, and Whites. Effects of mathematics scores and gender on choice of social majors were fairly consistent across racial/ethnic groups, whereas effects of reading scores and SES differed across racial/ethnic groups. Results for Whites were most consistent with Hollands theoretical formulations regarding the effects of variables on choice of social-type educational/occupational environments.

Child-Centered Group Play Therapy: Impact on Social-Emotional Assets of Kindergarten Children

The current study explored the effects of child-centered group play therapy (CCGPT) on social-emotional assets of kindergarten children and the therapeutic aspect of group sizes in CCGPT outcome. A total of 43 participants were randomly assigned to either the intervention or waitlist control groups. We used Parent and Teacher forms of Social Emotional Assets and Resilience Scales (SEARS). Factorial ANOVA results indicated a statistically significant interaction effect on SEARS–P Total score, Social Competence subscale, and Empathy subscale indicating positive impact of CCGPT. SEARS–T indicated no statistically significant differences between groups. Group size resulted in similar results.

Research with Small Samples: Considerations for Single Case and Randomized Small Group Experimental Designs

Single case designs (SCDs) and randomized small group (RSG) designs are two options for researchers who have limited resources and who would like to demonstrate the experimental effect of an intervention. The authors address considerations for internal and external validity in each design and provide an overview of the strengths and limitations of the various statistical analyses in each design. Effective researchers are well-informed regarding research design and match small-n participant designs to appropriate research questions. Examples of research questions and research design are discussed.

Child-Centered Play Therapy-Research Integrity Checklist: Development, reliability, and use.

Treatment fidelity is a critical standard within the exploration of evidence-based treatment effectiveness. In order for experimental research studies to meet the rigor of evidence-base scrutiny, researchers are expected to address how and to what degree the experimental treatment was delivered in alignment with standard procedures for that treatment. Although child-centered play therapy (CCPT) can be delivered according to an established protocol, measures for adherence to such protocol have not been developed. The purpose of the current study was to develop a measure to determine adherence to treatment fidelity. Four experienced CCPT therapists reviewed literature and observed play therapy sessions facilitated by other experienced play therapists to confirm the validity of verbal CCPT procedures and establish interrater reliability on the created instrument. Results revealed a free marginal multirater kappa at .82 and an intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) at .95 indicating strong consistency of raters and interrater reliability among raters for the Child-Centered Play Therapy-Research Integrity Checklist (CCPT-RIC). Additionally, verbal categories with the CCPT-RIC were defined for the purposes of research coding.