The Effect of Child-Centered Play Therapy on Self-Compassion and Emotion Regulation Skills in Children with Cancer

ABSTRACTThis study examined the effects of Child-Centered Play Therapy (CCPT) on self-compassion and emotion regulation skills in 8- to 12-year-old children diagnosed with cancer. The study was conducted using a pretest-posttest design with a control group. The participants were children undergoing long-term cancer treatment at Necmettin Erbakan University Faculty of Medicine, Department of Pediatrics. In the experimental group, a child-centered curriculum was applied for 12 weeks. The control group did not receive any therapy. For this purpose, 17 participants were randomly assigned to the experimental group and 17 participants to the control group. The Emotion Regulation Scale for Children and the Self-Compassion Scale for Children were used as data collection instruments in the study. These scales were administered simultaneously to the experimental and control groups to obtain pre-test and post-test measures. As a result of the experimental applications, it was observed that the children in the child-centered play therapy group achieved higher scores in self-compassion and emotion regulation skills compared to their peers in the control group.