Trial reportNursing open2021
Effects of sandplay therapy in reducing emotional and behavioural problems in school-age children with chronic diseases: A randomized controlled trial.
Trial report in Nursing open, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 9 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
9 citing papers in PubMed, 24 citations in OpenAlex.
- Effects of sandplay therapy in reducing emotional and behavioural problems in school-age children with chronic diseases: A randomized controlled trial.Nursing open · 2021Trial
- Supporting Children With a Chronic Disease and Their Parents When Admitted to Hospital: A Scoping Review of Psychosocial Supports.Acta paediatrica (Oslo, Norway : 1992) · 2026Article
- The relationship between alexithymia, meaning in life, and quality of life in older breast cancer patients: a cross-sectional study based on variable-centered and person-centered perspectives.Frontiers in medicine · 2026Article
- Application and progress of psychological sand table play therapy in children's rehabilitation.Frontiers in pediatrics · 2026Review
- Healing Beyond Words: A Randomized Controlled Trial of Sandplay and Art Therapies for PTSD Among Syrian Refugee Children in Jordan.International journal of pediatrics · 2026Article
- Sand-based therapy in pediatrics: a narrative review of traditional and digital sand therapy.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Review
- Intervention Effects of Group Sandplay Therapy on Children at Risk of Smartphone Addiction: Focusing on Internalizing and Externalizing Problems in the Korean Youth Self Report.Children (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Analysis of initial sandplay characteristics among university students with different levels of loneliness.BMC psychiatry · 2023Article
- A Study on the Effects of a Cartoon Text Version of Health Education Manual with Sandplay on the Psychological Status and Cognitive Function of Children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder.Evidence-based complementary and alternative medicine : eCAM · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
purposeChildren with chronic diseases exhibit a higher incidence of emotional-behavioural problems. Though sandplay therapy is a universally recognized psychological treatment method, experimental evidence for this form of therapy is lacking. Our aims were to examine the effectiveness of sandplay therapy in reducing emotional and behavioural problems in school-age children with chronic diseases as well as anxiety and depression in their caregivers. DESIGN AND
methodsA total of 60 children and their caregivers were enrolled in the present study between January and October 2019. A randomized controlled trial was conducted at the Children's Hospital of Chongqing Medical University, China. Participants were divided into an intervention and a control group. Both groups received regular treatment, and the intervention group received additional sandplay therapy. Four behavioural rating scales were used to evaluate the differences between the two groups. The children's scores on the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL), Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (EPQ), Self-Rating Anxiety Scale (SAS) and Self-Rating Depression Scale (SDS) before and after the intervention were compared using the Mann-Whitney test. The Wilcoxon signed rank test was also employed to compare the median results before and after treatment.
resultsThe total scores for CBCL, anxiety and depression, withdrawal, and social behavioural problems for children in the intervention group were all lower than the corresponding scores for those in the control group (p < .05). The EPQ scores for emotional stability and psychosis in the intervention group were both lower than those in the control group (p < .05). The SAS and SDS scores for the caregivers of children in the intervention group were also lower than the corresponding scores for those in the control group (p < .05).
conclusionSandplay therapy can reduce anxiety, withdrawal, and social behavioural problems in school-age children with chronic diseases, as well as relieve anxiety and depression symptoms in their caregivers. Our study provided evidence for the clinical application of sandplay therapy and highlights the importance of offering and integrating psychological treatment in clinical nursing care.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.