Chuan-Yung Huang, Hui Su, Siew-May Cheng, Chee-Seng Tan
{"title":"The effects of group art therapy on adolescents' self-concept and peer relationship: A mixed-method study.","authors":"Chuan-Yung Huang, Hui Su, Siew-May Cheng, Chee-Seng Tan","doi":"10.1002/cad.20435","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>This study examined the effects of group art therapy on self-concept and peer relationships among adolescents using a mixed-method approach. Twelve recruited adolescents from a high school in Northern Taiwan attended weekly 2-h group art therapy sessions for 8 weeks. Through a discovery-oriented approach incorporating focus group interviews and individual interviews, qualitative results revealed that the participants started getting to know themselves better and were able to explore their inner selves while noticing their own emotions. Their self-concept also became more positive along with reduced negative self-concept, increased positive self-concept, and clearer visions towards future goals. Furthermore, the therapy modified adolescents' negative peer relationships by reducing their social anxiety and adjusting their complicated experiences. Participants were found to experience trustable, allied, and compassionate positive peer relationships while having reduced loneliness and improved social skills at the same time. Besides, the participants answered self-concept and peer relationship scales at pre- and post-interventions as well as a 12-month follow-up thereafter. Friedman test on the longitudinal data showed participants reporting consistently higher self-concept and peer relationship at post-intervention and 12-month follow-up than at the pre-intervention stage. Taken together, the findings duly support art therapy in boosting adolescents' self-concept and peer relationships.</p>","PeriodicalId":47745,"journal":{"name":"New Directions for Child and Adolescent Development","volume":"2021 179","pages":"75-92"},"PeriodicalIF":3.4000,"publicationDate":"2021-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"4","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"New Directions for Child and Adolescent Development","FirstCategoryId":"102","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1002/cad.20435","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"2021/9/24 0:00:00","PubModel":"Epub","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"PSYCHOLOGY, DEVELOPMENTAL","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 4
Abstract
This study examined the effects of group art therapy on self-concept and peer relationships among adolescents using a mixed-method approach. Twelve recruited adolescents from a high school in Northern Taiwan attended weekly 2-h group art therapy sessions for 8 weeks. Through a discovery-oriented approach incorporating focus group interviews and individual interviews, qualitative results revealed that the participants started getting to know themselves better and were able to explore their inner selves while noticing their own emotions. Their self-concept also became more positive along with reduced negative self-concept, increased positive self-concept, and clearer visions towards future goals. Furthermore, the therapy modified adolescents' negative peer relationships by reducing their social anxiety and adjusting their complicated experiences. Participants were found to experience trustable, allied, and compassionate positive peer relationships while having reduced loneliness and improved social skills at the same time. Besides, the participants answered self-concept and peer relationship scales at pre- and post-interventions as well as a 12-month follow-up thereafter. Friedman test on the longitudinal data showed participants reporting consistently higher self-concept and peer relationship at post-intervention and 12-month follow-up than at the pre-intervention stage. Taken together, the findings duly support art therapy in boosting adolescents' self-concept and peer relationships.
期刊介绍:
The mission of New Directions for Child and Adolescent Development is to provide scientific and scholarly presentations on cutting edge issues and concepts in the field of child and adolescent development. Each issue focuses on a specific new direction or research topic, and is peer reviewed by experts on that topic. Any topic in the domain of child and adolescent development can be the focus of an issue. Topics can include social, cognitive, educational, emotional, biological, neuroscience, health, demographic, economical, and socio-cultural issues that bear on children and youth, as well as issues in research methodology and other domains. Topics that bridge across areas are encouraged, as well as those that are international in focus or deal with under-represented groups. The readership for the journal is primarily students, researchers, scholars, and social servants from fields such as psychology, sociology, education, social work, anthropology, neuroscience, and health. We welcome scholars with diverse methodological and epistemological orientations.