The effect of puppet based game activity applied pre-surgery process on anxiety and fear level in children
Keywords:
Anxiety, child, fear, puppet-based play, therapeutic approachAbstract
Purpose: This study was conducted to reduce fear and anxiety in children due to surgical procedures with puppet-based play activity.
Design and methods: The study, which is an experimental type of research, was conducted with 46 children (20 experiments, 26 controls) who came for surgery in the pediatric surgery service. The data were collected through the Descriptive Information Form, Child Anxiety Scale-State, and Child Fear Scale. In the evaluation of the descriptive characteristics of children; number, percentage distributions and chi-square test were used. Analyzes Normal distribution..
Results: These studies showed that therapeutic or puppet-based games reduce fear in children, consistent with previous research. Puppet-based play before surgery positively reduces children’s fear.
Conclusion: In this study, the effect of puppet-based play activity applied before the surgical procedure to reduce the fear and anxiety in children due to surgical procedures on the level of anxiety and fear in children; It has been determined that puppet-based play activity is effective in reducing the anxiety and fear levels due to the surgical procedure in children aged 4-6 years.
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Copyright (c) 2026 Ramazan İnci, Derya Yanık, Rukiye Arslan, Mehmet Akif Kay, Mehmet Sağlam

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