Effectiveness of Play on Anxiety among Hospitalized Children

Abstract

A child is a unique individual; he or she is not a miniature adult, not a little man or woman. The childhood process is vital because of socialization process by the transmission of attitude, customs, and behavior through the influence of the family and community. Some children become sick and need hospitalization, Anxiety is the greatest stress imposed by hospitalization during early child hood. Play is one of the non-pharmacological therapy which act as an important part of life and foster the growth and development of child. Play also reduces anxiety of child during hospitalization. Quantitative research approach was selected with quasi experimental pretest-posttest control group design. Purposive sampling was used. Sample size was 50 that is 25 each in experimental group and control group. The researcher assessed the anxiety of hospitalized children using structured anxiety rating scale. After conducting a pretest for both experimental and control group, play was introduced to the experimental group. The experimental group received play for 30 min a day, for 3 days and no intervention was given to the control group. Post test was conducted on the third day using the same tool, to both the groups. The result shows that, in experimental group 38% of children had mild anxiety and 12% had moderate anxiety. In control group 44% children had moderate anxiety and 6% children had severe anxiety in the post test. It is found that the calculated t value is greater than table value. It was concluded that there was significant difference in anxiety score among hospitalized children in experimental group than the control group. The finding of the study suggest that play is an effective therapy in reducing anxiety of hospitalized children.