The effects of the Let's Get Rational board game on rational thinking, depression, and self-acceptance in adolescents

Jerry Kehr Wilde, Marquette University

Abstract

The present study investigated the effects of playing the Let's Get Rational board game on rational thinking, depression, and self-acceptance in high school students. A sample of 80 subjects (40 male, 40 female) were selected for participation in this study. Stratified random sampling was employed to include an equal number of male and female subjects from each of the 9th, 10th, 11th, and 12th-grade for both experimental and control groups. Subsequent to random selection, five of each of the 10 subjects were assigned to an experimental and control condition. Treatment groups consisted of 10 subjects comprising five male and five female subjects from each of the four grade levels. As a result, treatment groups were composed of 10 students who played the board game Let's Get Rational for one 52 minute class period once a week for seven weeks. Three dependent measures were used. These included a measure of rational thinking (Child and Adolescent Scale of Irrationality - CASI), a measure of depression (Beck Depression Inventory - BDI), and a measure of self-acceptance (Adjective Generation Technique - AGT). Cell means were calculated for the following independent variables: (1) treatment vs. no treatment; (2) gender--male vs. female; (3) grade level--9th, 10th, 11th, and 12th. Thirty-seven research hypotheses were analyzed using multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) and univariate analysis of variance (ANOVA). Three of the 37 research hypotheses analyzed reached the.05 level of significance. Results indicated that the subjects in the experimental group agreed with fewer irrational beliefs than subjects who received no treatment. Ninth grade experimental subjects also reported less irrational thinking than did 9th-grade control group subjects. Finally, 10th-grade experimental subjects were significantly less depressed than 10th-grade control subjects. The remaining research hypotheses failed to reach significance. The results of this study suggest that the Let's Get Rational board game is an effective therapeutic tool for use with adolescents. Younger experimental subjects (9th and 10th-graders) appeared to benefit more from the game than older experimental subjects (11th and 12th-grades). Future research could investigate the game's effectiveness with various clinical populations and elementary aged subjects.

Recommended Citation

Wilde, Jerry Kehr, "The effects of the Let's Get Rational board game on rational thinking, depression, and self-acceptance in adolescents" (1993). Dissertations (1962 - 2010) Access via Proquest Digital Dissertations. AAI9411506.
https://epublications.marquette.edu/dissertations/AAI9411506

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