The purpose of this study is to find the effects of group art therapy on the depression of battered women. This research was carried out on 20 batted women who entered the shelter of Seoul city. The subjects were randomly assigned to an experimental group and a control group which consisted of 10 women respectively. The experimental group was trained by the group art therapy program of 15 sessions which was carried out for 2 hours, twice a week, while nothing was carried out on the control group.
This study used two inventories of depression, BDI(Beck Depression Inventory) and CES-D(The Center for Epidemiological Studies-Depression Inventory) as pre-test and post-test. Mean and Standard Deviation of the inventory scores of the experimental group and the controlled group were calculated and the data were analyzed by ANOVA. The works of K-HTP of the experimental group before and after the art therapy program as well as the activities and responses of the experimental group during the treatment were analyzed qualitatively.
The results are as follows:
First, the group art therapy programs had a significant effect on decreasing the depression of female victims of domestic violence. Second, the group art therapy programs had a positive effect in the qualitative comparison of the works of K-HTP which were carried out before and after the treatment.
Third, the group art therapy programs brought about positive effects on responses and activities during the treatment sessions. Thus this study proved that group art therapy has positive effects on decreasing the depression of female victims of domestic violence.
Key Words : group art therapy, domestic violence, depression