Effectiveness of play therapies for children under 12: A systematic literature review

The aim of this research is to synthesize the findings obtained from play therapy studies with children aged 3-12, including experimental interventions, in a systematic method. A systematic literature review method was used to analyze and aggregate the available evidence. For this purpose, inclusion and exclusion criteria were determined to determine the scope of the study. Studies on play therapy were searched in EBSCOHOST (including all databases such as Academic Search Ultimate, ERIC, MEDLINE), Pubmed, SAGE, Science Direct, Scopus, Web of Science and WILEY databases. 39 studies that met the eligibility criteria formed the scope of this research. The included studies often tested the effectiveness of Child-Centered play therapy, Cognitive Behavioral play therapy, Adlerian play therapy, and Structured play therapy. Play therapies are effective on children's aggressive behaviors, defiant behaviors, aggression, externalized/internalized behavior problems, social emotional development, social competence and empathy, anxiety, self-regulation, responsibility, self-esteem and depression, academic achievement, attention and bilingual disorder. ; It was found that it was not effective on self-efficacy and working memory problems. When the bias risk analysis of the included studies is evaluated; In the selection bias dimension, the random assignment criterion was included in the low risk category in most studies, and the criterion of hiding the random assignment information was in the uncertain risk category in most studies. In terms of performance, identification and attrition bias, most studies were in the uncertain risk category, while in reporting bias, all studies were in the low risk category. The findings obtained as a result of the research were discussed in the light of the studies in the literature and suggestions were made for practitioners and researchers.