the effect of play therapy on the frustration and hopelessness of children with chronic diseases

Background: chronic illness separates children from their normal living environment and intermittent, and hospitalization causes them to feel frustrated and hopeless. since playing has a significant role in reducing children's negative emotions, this study was conducted to investigate the effect of play therapy on the frustration and hopelessness of children with chronic diseases. methods: his is a semi-experimental study with two control and intervention groups, which was conducted in 2020. a total of 60 children with chronic diseases hospitalized in 6 departments of children's medical center in tehran were selected by convenience sampling method to participate in this study based on the entry criteria (n=30 in the intervention and n=30 people in the control group). a demographic information form and kazdin's hopelessness scale in children (hsc) were used to collect the data, and spss software version 16 was used to analyze the collected data. results: the findings of this study indicated that the play therapy had a significant effect on the hopelessness of children in the intervention group, so that their mean score of hopelessness after the intervention was much lower compared to before intervention (p-value). the effect size of this intervention on the children hopelessness was 0.215, which is higher than 0.08, indicating the effectiveness of intervention. conclusion: the results of this study showed that playing has a positive effect on the level of frustration of children with chronic diseases. therefore, playing is recommended to reduce frustration and improve mental health of children with chronic diseases.