Development and application of an Adlerian adventure play therapy program: Increasing community feeling among elementary school students.

Abstract

This study aimed to develop and verify the effectiveness of an adventure play therapy program based on Adlerian theory and designed to increase community feeling among elementary school students. Adlerian constructs of self-encouragement, social interest, peer relations, and the Crucial Cs were the outcome measures. Participants were 32 grade five students attending an elementary school in Seoul, equally divided into the experimental and control groups. Ten counseling sessions over 5 weeks were conducted. The data were analyzed through independent variables t tests, repeated analysis of variance (ANOVA), and analysis of covariance (ANCOVA), as applicable. The results indicated a significant increase in the following factors in the experimental group compared with the control group after program completion: self-encouragement (total score, cognitive, behavioral, and emotional self-encouragement subdomains); social interest (total score, attitudes, and behavioral subdomains); and peer relations (total score, instrumental aid, intimacy, and superiority subscales). Furthermore, the results of the trend analysis among the experimental group showed that the score of the Crucial Cs gradually increased with the number of sessions in the experimental group. Thus, the results indicate that adventure play therapy based on Adlerian theory is effective in promoting a sense of community among preadolescent children. This study proposes a remarkable new approach to child group counseling by integrating the major concepts of Adlerian theory and adventure-based counseling.

Trait Depression and Subjective Well-Being: The Chain Mediating Role of Community Feeling and Self-Compassion

“…When individuals have lower community feeling, it becomes challenging for them to sustain a healthy lifestyle, and they may experience a lack of value and meaning in their lives. Community feeling is a necessary condition for the promotion of a healthy lifestyle [29] and is also a crucial source of meaning and value in one's life [24,26,30]. Furthermore, community feeling is not only positively correlated with an individual's subjective well-being [31] but is also an important predictor of it [25].…”

“…Its practical significance lies in the fact that both the self-regulation of individuals with trait depression and clinical interventions should root themselves in two aspects, namely self-compassion and, particularly, community feeling. Indeed, the Adlerian Adventure Play Therapy Program has been shown to significantly improve the community feeling of preadolescent children [ 29 ], while the Mindful Self-Compassion Program [ 77 ] has been proven to significantly improve individuals’ level of self-compassion. Therefore, clinical workers are encouraged to use tools such as the Adlerian Adventure Play Therapy Program and the Self-Compassion Program to intervene via the community feeling and self-compassion pathways, respectively, in clinical and subclinical depressed individuals.…”

“…Previous studies have indicated that hostility and aggression are common in depressed individuals [27], and individuals with depression are more likely to adopt a self-absorbed, passive interpersonal style [28], which leads to a lower level of community feeling. Community feeling, as a necessary condition for a healthy lifestyle [29], as well as an important source of meaningfulness and worth [24,26,30], is not only positively correlated with individual subjective well-being [31], but also an important predictor of individual subjective well-being [25]. Moreover, the results of two meta-analyses [32,33] have suggested that interpersonal psychotherapy (i.e., focusing on improving one's interpersonal relationships and interpersonal skills) is an effective intervention for alleviating depressive symptoms.…”