The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of group art
therapy for self-esteem and peer relational skill of foster care children. The
subjects of the study included a total of 18 foster children. They were in the
fourth to the sixth grade of elementary school in G city, were recommended
by a social worker, and had their and their parents' agreement. The
experimental group participated in the group art therapy program from
September 2015 to November 2015. This study adopts two assessment tools:
Self Esteem Inventory(SEI) researched and developed by Boga Choi and
Gweyeon Jeon(1993) and Peer Relational Skills Scale for Children and
Adolescents(PRS-AC) made and reported by Yunran Yang(2004). Research
design was prepared to compare pre-test, post-test and follow-up. The data
analysis were statistically treated with the SPSS 18.0 program, and
independent t-test was used to check the identity between the two groups.
In addition, to examine the changes of the foster children's peer relational
skill and self-esteem, repeated measure ANOVA was applied. The findings of
the study were summarized as follows: First, the group art therapy program
for increasing peer relational skill had positive impacts on the foster care
children's peer relational skill. Second, the group art therapy program for
increasing peer relational skill had positive influences on the foster care
children's self-esteem.