The effects of educational group games on the split families children with high levels of depression

This research aims to study the effects of educational group games on the depression levels of the children of split families. To select the sample for the research, the 3rd and 4th graders attending the public primary schools in Konak, Izmir, were administered "The Kovaks Depression Scale", particularly developed for the children of split families, in the 2006-2007 academic year. Eighteen voluntary students with high levels of depression were selected, nine of whom formed the control group. The students in the experimental group participated in educational games once a week during 10 weeks. The children's parents and close friends were interviewed through the semi-structured interview technique before and after the experiment, and the experimental group was asked to draw pictures of families after the experiment According to the results of the research, the scores concerning the depression levels of the children who participated in the educational games and of those who did not vary significantly. This finding proves that the educational games have a positive impact on the depression levels of the children of split families. The scripts of the interviews with the children's parents and close friends in the experimental group were analyzed for content for the qualitative analysis part of the research. General meaning sets and themes were sorted out from the scripts, and their frequencies were calculated. According to the results of the qualitative analyses, the children who participated in the experiment have started to be pushier in their relations especially with their families, teacher and friends, to defend their own rights and to express their feelings and ideas more comfortably. Some participants' parents and close friends say that they started to control their aggressive behaviors and have more selfconfidence. In addition, the children in the experimental group were asked to draw pictures of their families before and after the experiment. When the pictures of families are studied, it is seen that the number of the members of families have increased, that the human figures look more like humans, and that hotter colors were used in the pictures drawn at the end of the experiment.