The effectiveness of child-centered play therapy training in Malaysia

Abstract

Play therapy in Malaysia is still in the early stages of development. This study investigated the effectiveness of Child-Centered Play Therapy by conducting 3-day training sessions in different part of Malaysia for a total of 116 participants including mental health students and practitioners. Four research questions guided this study in exploring the differences on the three subscales: attitude, knowledge, and skills in play therapy. A repeated measure design was used for the pre-test and post-test instruments. Results indicated statistically significantly differences between pre and post tests on the all subscales. In comparing students and practitioners, result indicated no statistically significantly differences for all subscales on the pre and post tests. However, there was a statistically significantly difference between participants with and without previous play therapy experiences on the knowledge and skills subscales for the pre and post tests. In addition, a correlation design show there was statistical significance between the relationships among the subscales. For future research, a design incorporating random assignment and a control group as well as differencing lengths of training session are planned.