The effects of sandplay therapy on the depression, anxiety and saliva cortisol of university students with ADHD tendencies

Lee, Yoon-jung; Jang, Mikyung

doi:2012.3.1.31

J Sym & San Therapy > Volume 3(1); 2012 > Article

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

JSST. 2012;3(1): 31-47. doi: https://doi.org/10.12964/jsst.120002

The effects of sandplay therapy on the depression, anxiety and saliva cortisol of university students with ADHD tendencies

Yoon-jung Lee¹, and Mikyung Jang²

¹Namseoul University Children and Family Counseling Center, Cheonan, Korea
²Department of Child Welfare, Namseoul University, Cheonan, Korea

Corresponding Author: Yoon-jung Lee ,Email: snyntt@hanmail.net

Received: May 11, 2012; Accepted: May 28, 2012. Published online: June 30, 2012.

ABSTRACT

This study preformed sandplay therapy, a type of individual psychotherapy, targeting college students with ADHD tendencies to determine whether the therapy was effective in reducing their depression, anxiety, and saliva cortisol which is a biochemical indicator of stress. This research used Conners’ Adult ADHD Rating Scale-Korean Version (CAARS-K), Beck’s Depression Inventory (BDI), and State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI), targeting 797 college students in the central region of Korea. Among the participants who fell into the top 20% and displayed high levels of depression and anxiety in Conners’ ADHD rating scale, eight students who agreed to the experiment were finally selected. The sandplay therapy program was conducted for a total of ten weeks, one session per week, 45 minutes per session. pre-tests and post-tests questionnaire surveys were conducted and saliva cortisol samples were collected on a biweekly basis pre-tests and post-tests each session during the program. The statistical programs used to verify the effectiveness of this study were SPSS 15.0 Version and the Wilcoxon Rank Sum-Test, a non-parametric statistical process, was performed to verify the pre-tests and post-tests effect of each variable. The results indicated that sandplay therapy was effective in reducing their depression, state-trait anxiety, and the secretion of cortisol, a hormone related to endocrine stress.