Preadolescents' Problematic Behaviors And The Effectiveness Of Sandplay Therapy On It

Problematic behaviors were the actions which deviated from the normal level of development, impeded individual's physical and mental development, and brought trouble to the family, school and community.The syndromes were included withdrawn, somatic complaints, anxious / depressed, social problems, throught problems, attention problems, rule-breaking behavior and aggressive behavior.To explore syndrome of diffierent mental health level of preadolescents and the effectiveness of sandplay therapy on problematic behavior,3050 elementary school students at grade five and six were measured by the Youth Self-report Scale. Claster Analysis and discriminant analysis was made on the 2852 valid questionares.Hereby,sixty preadolescents were selected to participate the experiment. An equal-group design was conducted.The preadolescents in experimental group were devided into five teams.Each team processed group sandplay once a week, which lasted eight weeks.The control group was no treated.The covariance analysis was used to test the effectiveness of group sandplay therapy. Meanwhile, another four preadolenscents were choose to participate in case study.Results showed: (1) Preadolescents consisted of two natural groups, that is low problematic behavior group and high problematic behavior group. (2) Attention problem and withdrawn were common for preadolescents, while Anxious / depressed could forecast problematic behavior effectively, and aggressive behavior was the special indicator of severe problematic behavior;(3) Group sandplay had improved preadolescents'anxious/ depressed, withdrawn, social problems and attention problems; (4) Individual sandplay therapy was effective in treatment of problematic behavior.