Volume 28, Issue 1
DOI: 10.24205/03276716.2019.1093
Experimental study on group sandplay intervention for social anxiety and loneliness in obese children
Abstract
Interventioneffectofgroupsandplayonsocialanxietyandlonelinessinobesechildrenwasexploredinthis study.120childrenwhometthediagnosticcriteriaforobesityfromfourprimaryschoolsinChina,participatedin aneight-weekexperiment.The60obesechildrenoftheexperimentgroupunderwentgroupsandplayandwalking and running intervention, whereas the 60 children of the control group underwent walking and running intervention. Comparative tests performed before and after the intervention showed the following results: (1) The bodymassindex(BMI)andlonelinessofthetwogroupsarestatisticallysignificantlylowerthantheywerebefore the intervention (P <0.001). The decrease in the BMI of the experiment group is slightly higher (not statistically significant) than that of the control group. The decrease in loneliness of the experiment group is statistically significantly higher than that of the control group (P = 0.002); (2) the total scores of both groups in social anxiety and depression after the intervention decreased by varying degrees. The difference in the experiment group beforeandaftertheinterventionisstatisticallysignificant(P<0.001),whereasnosignificantdifferenceisobserved in the control group before and after the intervention (P>0.05). The diminution in depression of the experiment groupisgreaterthanthatofthecontrolgroup,thedifferenceisstatisticallysignificant(P<0.05).Groupsandplay therapy,combinedwithwalkingandrunningintervention,hasacertaininterventioneffectonsocialanxietyand lo neliness of obese children.
Keywords
Group sandplay therapy, obese children, social anxiety, loneliness.