Effectiveness of Expressive Art Therapy Group to Reduce Stress Level in Mothers of Children with Neurodevelopmental Disorders

Abstract

—Children with neurodevelopmental disorders often need intense help or assistance in carrying out their daily activities. Children’s difficulties in communication, socialization, certain characteristics, and maladaptive behaviors become the frequent stressor factors. Consequently, mothers who are responsible to nurture children with neurological development disorders are prone to experience continuous stress, in their life. The continuous stress experienced by mothers lead to variety of negative emotions. Many studies emphasized on the importance of paying special attention to mothers’ stress. However, interventions concerning the stress experienced by the parents, especially mothers are still insufficient. This quasi-experimental research with one group pretest-postest design aims to prove the effectiveness of expressive art therapy group to reduce participants' stress level. The participants in this study were six mothers, that have direct involvement in daily nurturance of children with neurodevelopmental disorder. Differences in stress levels were evaluated based on the pretest and postest scores, using the Perceived Stress Scale-10. The result of the statistical test proves that seven sessions of expressive art therapy group is effective to reduce the stress level of participants. Additionally, the intervention provides opportunities for participants to release their emotional tension, explore themselves, express their emotion, identify their challenges, find solutions and insights. In the end, participants are able to change their responses and reactions in a positive way and improve their interpersonal relationship.