Effectiveness of psychodrama group therapy on pupils with mathematics anxiety

Abstract

The present study focuses on the effectiveness of psychodrama group therapy on adolescents suffering from mathematics anxiety. Five secondary school pupils in Merano, aged 17-19 years, took part in 10 group sessions of 90 min, held weekly over a period of about 3 months. The changes generated by psychodrama therapy in the pupils' problem areas, such as, high stress levels before tests, impaired working memory, low self-esteem and motivation to learn mathematics, were measured with the help of the Personal Questionnaire (Elliott and Shapiro, Simplified personal questionnaire procedure, 1999) and the Self-efficacy scale-Mathematics, two quantitative measuring instruments, and with the Client Change Interview, a qualitative measuring instrument. The results of the data collected indicate that psychodrama treatment brought forth significant changes in some pupils' problem areas. (English) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]