1MSc (N), JSS College of Nursing, Mysore
2HOD, Pediatric Nursing, JSS College of Nursing, Mysore
3Principal cum Professor & HOD, JSS College of Nursing, Mysore
In present scenario, anxiety disorders are most common form of psychopatholology in preschool children with overall prevalence rate of 8–10%. One in 10 children aged 2–5 years fond to be experiencing anxiety. In that 9.5% have in the form of separation anxiety, social anxiety, specific fears, and generalised anxiety. Clay therapy provides diversion and brings relaxation, feels more secure in a strange environment, lessens stress and provides a means of release tension.
Quasi-experimental non equivalent pre test post test control group design.
Non probability convenience sampling technique was adopted to select 60 preschool children, both in experimental and control group.
Child anxiety symptoms inventory-4 teacher observation checklist.
The result of the study revealed that the significance of difference between the mean pre test and post test anxiety symptom score in experimental group which was statistically tested using paired ‘t’ test and was found to be highly significant at 0.05 level of significance (t(29)=22.41;p<0.05 and the significance of difference between the mean post test anxiety symptom scores between experimental and control group which was statistically tested using independent ‘t’ test was found to be highly significant at 0.05 level of significance (t(58)=11.3; p<0.05). The result also shown that the anxiety symptom scores of preschool children had no significant association with their selected personal variables.
Therefore, the study concluded that clay therapy was effective method to reduce the anxiety of preschool children.
Clay therapy, Anxiety symptoms, Preschool children
