The study investigated how the sand play therapy reduces the internalized shame, which the children of alcoholics would have inside, but improves the children's self-expression. The children of alcoholics are understood to feel several emotions as anx...
The study investigated how the sand play therapy reduces the internalized shame, which the children of alcoholics would have inside, but improves the children's self-expression. The children of alcoholics are understood to feel several emotions as anxiety, depression, low self-esteem, shame and anger. They generally try not to expose their problems caused by alcohol and other dysfunctions of their families as they either go silent with those problems or pretend that they do not have the problems at all from the beginning. Because of that, however, the children of alcoholics come to have a hard time with building up close relationships with others. In that regard, the study looked into how the sand play therapy could reduce the internalized shame of those children of alcoholics but improve their self-expression which would eventually help the children to be healthy both psychologically and socially.
The following inquiries have been established in order to properly reach the purpose of the research.
1. How could the sand play therapy decrease the internalized shame of the children of alcoholics?
2. How could the sand play therapy increase the self-expression of the children of alcoholics?
3. How would the sand play therapy targeting the children of alcoholics develop?
Children being taken care of by local children's centers in C City, Chungcheongnam-do, were selected as research participants and were given Korean-translated Children of Alcoholics Screening Test (CAST-K). Those who gained more than 13 points on a 30-point scale from the test were determined the final research participants. The children in the children's centers in Area A and Area B who had agreed to participate both in consultations and the research were categorized into an experimental group and the rest who would not want to have consultations but join the research only was separated into a control group. Both the groups consisted of 15 individual participants each which had added up to 30 research participants in total. The consultations were conducted from November of 2012 to March of 2013 and the research participants in the experimental group had a total of 12 private interviews, once a week for 45 minutes. The sand play therapy program was practiced by two sand play therapists and they had the private interviews with the participants in the experimental group.
As for the tools to develop the study, Korean-translated Children of Alcoholics Screening Test (CAST-K), Internalized Shame Scale (ISS), Self-expressive Behavior Checklist and the Sandplay Categorical Checklist (SCC) were used.
The collected data in the study was analyzed by a statistical program, SPSS 18.0, and the results are summarized as follows.
First of all, general characteristics of the children in the experimental group and the control group needed to be compared and for that, frequency and percentage were calculated while χ2-test was conducted.
Next, in order to understand the effects of the sand play therapy on the internalized shame of the children of alcoholics and their self-expression, the study controlled the findings of the pretest as a covariate and conducted covariate analysis (ANCOVA) onto the posttest.
The level of significance for the statistical verification on the results gained in the study was determined to be α=.05.
Lastly, during the 12 sessions of the sand play therapy, behavioral characteristics of the clients and any remarks that the clients had made to the box were carefully observed and those changes found during the therapy were qualitatively analyzed focusing on those references gained via personal observations and evaluations. That way, the study could verify Inquiry 1, 2 and 3.
What the study has learned during the therapy is summarized as follows.
First, the sand play therapy turned out to be efficient in reducing the internalized shame of the children of alcoholics. In terms of the total scores of the internalized shame, the experimental group was learned to have a lower score (M = 39.40) after the therapy than the one (M = 53.93) beforehand. However, the control group did not show much of a change before (M = 49.93) and after (M = 50.33) the therapy. The results of covariate analysis (ANCOVA) proved a statistically significant difference between the groups (F = 146.11, p < .05). In other words, the sand play therapy was determined to be good at decreasing the internalized shameful emotions of the children of alcoholics, which were improperness, emptiness, self-punishment and mistake anxiety and others.
Second, the sand play therapy improved the self-expression of the children of alcoholics. As for the total scores of the self-expressive behavior, the experimental groups achieved a higher score (M = 317.07) after the therapy comparing to the one (M = 255.67) before the therapy. The control group, too, did not come up with any great change before (M = 262.13) and after (M = 261.93) the therapy and according to the findings of covariate analysis (ANCOVA), there was found a statistically significant difference between the two groups (F = 73.94, p < .001). To sum up, the study verified how efficient the sand play therapy is in enhancing the self-expressions of the children of alcoholics, such as behavioral self-expression, cognitive self-expression, emotional self-expression, general self-expression and others.
Third, when the sand play therapy was first conducted, the participants seemed to feel uncomfortable and confused as they were encouraged to face with their emotions. However, as the therapy went further, the participants became able to express their thoughts and feelings openly while they exposed those psychologically deep wounds, which they had hidden for long, into the box in a safe way. The participants tried to connect the unconsciousness to the consciousness and strengthened their own egos by working on the internal energies during the sand play therapy
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