Effectiveness of Laughter Therapy upon the Emotional Balance of Primary School Teachers

A Quasi Experimental Study to Assess the Effectiveness of Laughter Therapy upon Emotional Balance of Primary School Teachers at Selected Schools at Chennai. OBJECTIVES: 1. To assess the emotional balance before and after laughter therapy in control and experimental group of primary school teachers. 2. To evaluate the effectiveness of laughter therapy by comparing the level of emotional balance before and after laughter therapy in control and experimental group of primary school teachers. 3. To determine the level of satisfaction regarding laughter therapy among experimental group of primary school teachers. 4. To find out the association between the selected demographic variables and the levels of emotional balance before and after laughter therapy in control group of primary school teachers. 5. To find out the association between the selected demographic variables and the levels of emotional balance before and after laughter therapy in experimental group of primary school teachers. The conceptual framework of the study was based on “King’s goal attainment model” (1989) given by Imogene king which was modified for the present study. The study variables were emotional balance and laughter therapy. An extensive review of literature and guidance by experts formed the foundation to the development of Demographic variables proforma, Emotional Balance Sheet-A self-assessment tool and Rating Scale on the level of satisfaction about Laughter therapy. A Quasi experimental design was used in this study. The present study was conducted in private schools in Karthikeyan Matriculation Higher secondary school, Madhuravoyal, Chennai (Control group) and M.E.S. Razeena Matriculation Higher secondary school, Kilpauk, Chennai (Experimental group). A sample size of 60 who meet the inclusion criteria were chosen for this study, in that 30 was taken for control group and 30 was taken for experimental group through randomization of settings. Purposive sampling technique was used to select the settings and samples from the respective settings. The data collection tools were validated and the reliability was established through test-retest and split half technique. The researcher used validated tool for collecting data. After the pilot study, the data for the main study was collected by using self-administered structured questionnaire method. The data was collected by using Demographic variables proforma, Emotional Balance Sheet-A self-assessment tool developed by DeFoore (2005) to assess emotional balance and Rating Scale on the level of Satisfaction about Laughter therapy. Laughter therapy is one of the psychosocial interventions that include various types of laughter along with breathing and stretching exercises which is administered for one month for the duration of 30 minutes / day during their break time between 10:30am to 11am for improving their emotional balance. Laughter therapy programme includes power point presentation and pamphlets distribution. Laughter therapy was administered only to the experimental group. On the 40th day (from the initiation of laughter therapy sessions to experimental group), the emotional balance was assessed for both control and experimental group by using Emotional Balance Sheet-A self-assessment tool. The level of satisfaction on administration of laughter therapy was assessed by using the rating scale in the experimental group of primary school teachers. Then collected data was tabulated and analyzed by using descriptive and inferential statistics. MAJOR FINDINGS OF THE STUDY: ❖ The study findings revealed that majority of primary school teachers were females (100%, 96.7%), with monthly family income between Rs.10,000 - 20,000 (90%, 73.3%), married (93.3%, 66.7%) and were not aware about laughter therapy (93.3%, 90%). Most of the teachers had B.Ed. qualification (53.3%, 60%), and belongs to nuclear family (63.3%, 53.3%). A significant percentage of them were aged between 25 -30 years (43.4%, 46.7%) with the mean age of 32 years and 33 years in the control and experimental group respectively. ❖ Before laughter therapy in control group of the primary school teachers most of them had moderately adequate emotional balance (56.7%) followed by inadequate emotional balance (40%) and adequate emotional balance only 3.3%. In experimental group of primary school teachers most of them had inadequate emotional balance (56.7%) and a significant percentage of them had moderately adequate emotional balance (43.3%). ❖ Most of the primary school teachers in control group had moderately adequate emotional balance (56.7%) followed by inadequate emotional balance (40%) and adequate emotional balance only 3.3%. Whereas in experimental group of the primary school teachers most of them had adequate emotional balance (53.3%) and a significant percentage of them had moderately adequate emotional balance (46.7%) after laughter therapy. The level of emotional balance is increased after laughter therapy in the experimental group of primary school teachers. It can be attributed to the effectiveness of laughter therapy. ❖ The difference in mean and standard deviation of emotional balance scores of primary school teachers before laughter therapy (M=39.93, 33.53, SD=15.59, 16.39) between control and experimental group is not statistically significant (p < 0.05). Whereas after laughter therapy the difference in the mean and standard deviation (M=39.50, 68.90, SD=15.55, 10.91) of emotional balance between control and experimental group of primary school teachers is statistically significant (p < 0.001). Emotional balance scores are significantly high after therapy in experimental group which can be attributed to the effectiveness of laughter therapy. Hence the null hypothesis Ho1 “There is no significant difference in the emotional balance scores before and after laughter therapy in control and experimental group of primary school teachers” was rejected. ❖ All primary school teachers in the experimental group were highly satisfied with all the aspects of laughter therapy (100%). ❖ The study findings revealed that there is no significant association between the selected demographic variables and the level of emotional balance in the control group of primary school teachers. Hence the null hypothesis Ho2 “There will be no significant association between selected demographic variables and the level of emotional balance before and after laughter therapy in the control group of primary school teachers” was retained. ❖ There is no significant association between the selected demographic variables and the level of emotional balance in the experimental group of primary school teachers. Hence the null hypothesis Ho3 “There will be no significant association between selected demographic variables and the level of emotional balance before and after laughter therapy in the experimental group of primary school teachers” was retained. These study findings revealed that laughter therapy can improve the emotional balance among primary school teachers. RECOMMENDATIONS: ❖ The study can be conducted on a large sample to generalize the results. ❖ A similar study can be conducted in other settings such as schools, community and hospital among various populations. ❖ A study can be conducted to assess the level of knowledge among nurses regarding emotional balance. ❖ A study can be conducted to assess the level of knowledge among nurses regarding emotional balance