The Effect of Group Art Therapy in Children with Withdrawn Behaviors

위축 아동을 위한 집단 미술치료프로그램의 효과

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of group art therapy on the withdrawn behavior, social behavior, social problems, anxiousness/depression, internalizing problems, total behavior problems and self-esteem in children who are withdrawn. Method: A randomized controlled pre-post test design was used. The participants were 31 children who were withdrawn attending J. P. Elementary School in Pohang City. Sixteen were assigned to the experimental group and 15 to the control group. The program consisted of 20 sessions of 80 minutes per session, 2 days a week, for 10 weeks. Instruments used for this study were the Children's Behavior Check List -Korean version (K-CBCL) and a self-esteem inventory. The data were analyzed using fisher exact test and Mann-Whitney U test. Results: Thescores for withdrawn behavior, social problems, anxiousness/depression, internalizing problems and total behavior problems decreased significantly in the experimental group as compare to the control group. Social behavior and self-esteem increased significantly in the experimental group as compared to the control group. Conclusions: This study provides evidence for the pontential and beneficial effects of group art therapy in children who are withdrawn. The program could be adequately used to improve problem behavior in withdrawn children.