The effects of Adlerian play therapy on maladaptive perfectionism and anxiety in children: A single case design.

Abstract

In recent years, an increasing number of mental health research focused on perfectionism as a concept that impacts psychosocial and behavioral wellbeing of individuals from different age groups (Morris & Lomax, 2014). In contrast with adaptive perfectionists, individuals with maladaptive perfectionism set unrealistically high standards and show rigidity in behaviors toward achievement (Stoeber & Otto, 2006). Research results support that maladaptive perfectionism is associated with a host of psychological problems throughout the life span such as depression, low self-esteem, eating disorders, interpersonal problems, and personality disorders (Boone, Soenens, Vansteenkiste, & Braet, 2012; Gnilka, Ashby, & Noble, 2013; Kenney-Benson & Pomerantz, 2005; Rice, Ashby, & Gilman, 2011; Stoeber, Feast, & Hayward, 2009). Anxiety is 1 of the most recognized mental health problems associated with perfectionism, which can start in early years due to experiencing criticism and high standards for performance (Damian, Stoeber, Negru, & Băban, 2013). Although there is an increase in the number of research studies focused on maladaptive perfectionism in adults, research regarding the mental health treatment of perfectionism in children is in its infancy (Morris & Lomax, 2014). Ashby, Kottman, and Martin (2004) proposed a play-based intervention grounded in Adlerian principles as a developmentally responsive approach that focused on helping children modify maladaptive thoughts and behavior. This single-case design study aimed to investigate the effect of Adlerian play therapy (AdPT) on children’s maladaptive perfectionism and anxiety. Results showed AdPT as a promising intervention that needs to be further studied for its effectiveness in treating children’s maladaptive perfectionism and related anxiety issues.

Group Adlerian Play Therapy With Children With Off-Task Behaviors

“…These skills are important tasks of young children (Kottman, 2003). Although more research needs to be conducted, the results of this study are promising and consistent with other SCD play therapy studies that revealed a slight decrease in desirable effects during the follow-up phase (Akay, 2013;Dillman Taylor & Meany-Walen, in press;Meany-Walen et al, in press;Schottelkorb & Ray, 2009) Group counseling creates opportunities for counselors to more efficiently work with greater number of students, which can be a benefit to school counselors, who may be already crunched for time (Hess et al, 2005;Sweeney et al, 2014). Although results are unclear and generalizability is limited, in this study Adlerian play therapy showed promise at increasing students' on-task behaviors.…”

“…Results revealed statistically significant findings that demonstrated Adlerian play therapy as effective at reducing student's disruptive behavior and increasing their classroom on-task behavior. Since that time, researchers have created other studies to explore the effectiveness of Adlerian play therapy in a variety of settings and using various treatment designs (e.g., Akay, 2013;Dillman Taylor & Meany-Walen, in press;Meany-Walen et al, in press).…”

A Systematic Review on the Psychological Effects of Perfectionism and Accompanying Treatment

“…Perfectionism is often classified as either adaptive or maladaptive. If adaptive, it provides motivation to set and achieve goals and, as a result, yields a variety of positive emotions and overt measures of success (Akay & Bratton, 2017;Hewitt & Flett, 1991;Lo & Abbott, 2019;Rice & Richardson, 2014). However, if maladaptive, it is a primary and secondary contributor to a wide range of psychopathology, physical ailments, and social and occupational strife (Curran & Hill, 2019;Egan et al, 2011;Fry & Debats, 2009;Vidic & Cherup, 2019).…”

Effects of teacher mediation in play, mixed-sex play and gender-segregation in play on academic performance of low achieving pupils

“…It has been observed that children benefit from play therapy because it is developmentally appropriate (Stutey & Wubbolding, 2018;Van Horne, Post, & Phipps, 2018) and it allows children to speak in their native language of play (Stutey & Wubbolding, 2018). Play therapies have been implemented on children with autism spectrum disorder (Guest & Ohrt, 2018), trauma (Gonzalez & Bell, 2016;Guest & Ohrt, 2018;Olson-Morrison, 2017), maladaptive perfectionism and anxiety (Akay & Bratton, 2017), high disruptive behaviour (Cochran & Cochran, 2017;Ritzi, Ray, & Schumann, 2017), Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) (Robinson, Simpson, &Hott, 2017), behavioural difficulties (Winburn, Gilstrap, & Perryman, 2017) and externalizing behaviour and poor social skills (Meany-Walen & Teeling, 2016).…”