the effects of story therapy in reducing aggression among primary school students and enhancing their self-esteem

Abstract

This research was aimed to investigate the effect of story therapy in reducing aggression and enhancing students‟ self-esteem at elementary school. The research design was pretest – posttest and control group. The statistic population was all elementary students of Ardabil in the school year 2015-2016 (n=52610). For this purpose, within the analytic study framework, 60 students (30 females and 30 males) with high aggression and low self-esteem problems were assigned randomly in two experimental and control groups .Shahim aggression questionnaire and Cooper Smith Self Esteem Questionnaire was used for evaluation. 11 story therapy sessions of 45 min was conducted during 11 weeks for the experimental group. For data analysis, multi-variable analysis of variance MANOVA was used. The results showed that story therapy could reduce aggression and increase the self-esteem of students at elementary school. The results indicates the efficiency of stories as an effective technique in aggression reduction and increasing the children‟s self-esteem.