Play Therapy With African American Children Exposed to Adverse Childhood Experiences

Abstract

African American children living in poverty often experience adverse childhood conditions such as overexposure to violence, either witnessing domestic violence or community violence, or direct victimization. These conditions can cause an increase in future mental health problems. In this pilot study, 12 African American children ages 5–9 participated in six weeks of child-centered individual play therapy followed by six weeks of group play therapy. Individual and group play therapy addressed the participants’ problematic behaviors as reported by teachers at an afterschool program for disadvantaged youth. Findings indicated that a combination of individual and group child-centered play therapy significantly decreased problematic behaviors affecting academic performance and the classroom overall. The combination of individual and group interventions also demonstrated a significant decrease in general worry and negative intrusive thought patterns. The results support therapists utilizing individual and group child-centered play therapy when working with children who experience adverse childhood experiences. Further research is needed to understand the impact of child-centered play therapy as a preventative intervention for children at-risk for developing mental health problems.

Full text

Play Therapy With African American Children Exposed to Adverse
Childhood Experiences
Lauren Patterson
William James College
Diane M. Stutey
Oklahoma State University
Brandi Dorsey
Winnow Counseling, LLC, Taylors, South Carolina
African American children living in poverty often experience adverse childhood
conditions such as overexposure to violence, either witnessing domestic violence or
community violence, or direct victimization. These conditions can cause an increase in
future mental health problems. In this pilot study, 12 African American children ages
5–9 participated in six weeks of child-centered individual play therapy followed by six
weeks of group play therapy. Individual and group play therapy addressed the partic-
ipants’ problematic behaviors as reported by teachers at an afterschool program for
disadvantaged youth. Findings indicated that a combination of individual and group
child-centered play therapy significantly decreased problematic behaviors affecting
academic performance and the classroom overall. The combination of individual and
group interventions also demonstrated a significant decrease in general worry and
negative intrusive thought patterns. The results support therapists utilizing individual
and group child-centered play therapy when working with children who experience
adverse childhood experiences. Further research is needed to understand the impact of
child-centered play therapy as a preventative intervention for children at-risk for
developing mental health problems.
Keywords: child-centered play therapy, African American children, anxiety, adverse
childhood experiences
Supplemental materials: http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/pla0000080.supp
Children who have experienced adverse
childhood experiences (ACEs) often need men-
tal health counseling, especially African Amer-
ican children living in poverty. According to the
National Center for Children in Poverty
(NCCP; 2017) “about 15 million children in the
United States—21% of all children—live in
families with incomes below the federal poverty
threshold” (para 1). Researchers have stated that
not only does poverty contribute to poor phys-
ical health and mental health of children, but
poverty can also impede children’s learning
abilities and contribute to problems socially,
emotionally, and behaviorally (Henninger &
Luze, 2014;Holtz, Fox, & Meurer, 2015;Lef-
mann & Combs-Orme, 2014;Snowden, 2014).
African American children experience higher
levels of poverty rates; 42% of African Ameri-
can infants and toddlers experience poverty
compared to only 15% of White infants and
toddlers (Odom, Pungello, & Gardner-Neblett,
2012). Therefore, it is especially important to
address the mental health needs of African
Lauren Patterson, William James College; Diane M.
Stutey, Department of Counseling and Counseling Psychol-
ogy, Oklahoma State University; Brandi Dorsey, Winnow
Counseling, LLC, Taylors, South Carolina.
Diane M. Stutey is now at Department of Counseling and
Human Services, University of Colorado Colorado Springs.
The research team would like to extend a special thank-
you to the grant given by Greenville Women Giving that
funded the play therapy interventions.
Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed
to Lauren Patterson, 1949 Commonwealth Avenue, #34,
Brighton, MA 02135. E-mail: lauren_patterson@williamjames
.edu
This document is copyrighted by the American Psychological Association or one of its allied publishers.
This article is intended solely for the personal use of the individual user and is not to be disseminated broadly.
International Journal of Play Therapy
© 2018 Association for Play Therapy 2018, Vol. 27, No. 4, 215–226
1555-6824/18/$12.00 http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/pla0000080
215