Immediate and Retained Learning Effects of Child-Centered Play Therapy Training With College Students in Taiwan on Attitude, Knowledge, and Skills

Abstract

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the immediate and retained learning effects of child-centered play therapy (CCPT) training with college counseling students in Taiwan. Thirty-five junior undergraduate students participated in the study. Research participants completed the revised Chinese version Play Therapy Attitude, Knowledge, and Skills Survey (PTAKSS-R) four times, including pretest, posttest, follow-up (afters three months), and after internship (after six months). Repeated measured analysis of variance (RM-ANOVA) was employed to explore participants’ changes in their play therapy attitude, knowledge, and skills across time. The results of RM-ANOVA on the attitude, knowledge, and skills subscales, as well as total score, revealed statistically significant increases across four data collection points and demonstrated large effect sizes (ηp2 = 0.227 ~ 0.791). The findings in this study suggest that students responded to play therapy training with positive changes and were able to retain these changes across time. Limitations of this study and recommendations for play therapy training and future research are addressed.