The effectiveness of play therapy on anxiety and hopelessness children with cancer

Background: Cancer diagnosis and hospitalization of children can cause feelings such as anxiety, hopelessness, and fear of death. During hospitalization, play therapy can reduce psychological symptoms and facilitate the interventions of specialists as a non-pharmacological treatment.  aim: Therefore, the aim of the current research was to determine the efficacy of play therapy on anxiety and hopelessness in children with cancer in Ardabil Methods: This study was semi-experimental with pre-test and post-test with the control group. The statistical population consisted of all children with cancer referred to Boali Hospital Training center year 1397-1398 in Ardebil.30 children were chosen through available sampling and randomly divided into two experimental and control groups (15 subjects each) The experimental group received 8 sessions of Cognitive-behavioral play therapy. Data were collected through “the Kazdin Hopelessness Scale for children (1979)”, and “the Spence Children’s Anxiety Scale (1997)”. Statistical analyses were conducted by Covariance analysis and SPSS software version 24. Results: The results of covariance analysis indicated that laughter therapy significantly reduced anxiety and hopelessness scores in the post-test. (P <0.001).  Conclusion: According to the findings of the research, it can be said that play therapy intervention is effective in reducing anxiety and hopelessness, as a result, this treatment can be used as a complementary treatment alongside the main cancer treatments.