Effects of Adlerian Play Therapy on Children's Externalizing Behavior

Abstract

Without intervention, children's externalizing behaviors tend to worsen over time and increase the risk that they will experience future problems. The authors used a single‐case research design with 6 Caucasian boys in kindergarten and 1st grade to measure the effectiveness of Adlerian play therapy on children's classroom behaviors. The results revealed an improvement in the children's behavior during and after the intervention, suggesting that Adlerian play therapy is a promising intervention for children's externalizing classroom behaviors.

Using Single‐Case Research Designs to Demonstrate Evidence for Counseling Practices

“…Also included within this special issue are eight exemplar studies that depict the use of SCRDs to evaluate the efficacy of counseling and counseling preparation interventions with individuals across the lifespan. Four articles investigate the efficacy of interventions with school‐aged children and adolescents using Adlerian play therapy (Meany‐Walen, Kottman, Bullis, & Taylor, ), child‐centered play therapy (Ware Balch & Ray, ), and nature‐based (Swank, Shin, Cabrita, Cheung, & Rivers, ) and peer‐monitoring modalities (Smith, Evans‐McCleon, Urbanski, & Justice, ). Two articles depict the utility of counseling interventions within the rehabilitative experience of individuals who are incarcerated using integrating narrative therapy (Ikonomopoulos, Smith, & Schmidt, ) and cognitive behavior therapy (Cox, Lenz, & James, ).…”

Assessing the utility and fidelity of the Adlerian Play Therapy Skills Checklist using qualitative content analysis.

“…The other research studies investigating the effectiveness of AdPT have all used single-case designs to examine perfectionism and anxiety (Akay, 2013), disruptive classroom behaviors for individuals (Dillman Taylor & Meany-Walen, 2015; Meany-Walen, Bullis, Kottman, & Dillman Taylor, 2015; Stutey, Dunn, Shelnut, & Ryan, 2017) and groups (Dillman Taylor, Meany-Walen, Nelson, & Gungor, under review; Meany-Walen, Kottman, Bullis, & Dillman Taylor, 2015; Stutey et al, 2017), and social skills (Meany-Walen & Teeling, 2016). Each of these studies revealed promising results and large RCTs are needed for replication.…”

Application of Adlerian play therapy with multiracial children.

“…Included in this realm are family values, division of power, and parenting styles. Family constellation is the general makeup of family members and includes psychological birth order, gender and sex distribution, parental or family relationship status (married, divorced, widowed, partnered, same sex, blended, or others), and parental cultural identity and values (Kottman & Meany-Walen, 2016; Meany-Walen, Kottman, Bullis, & Dillman Taylor, 2015).…”