The purpose of this study was to see how group art therapy can influence on the depression
and anxiety that the adolescents of the single-parent families have.
The subjects for the study were chosen from A-middle school female students of
single-parent families residing in the city of Pusan, to compose the controlled group of 4
students and the experimental group of 4 students. They were given individual interviews as
well as a pre-test during the time of May-13 through May-18, 2005, while the group art
therapy itself was given in the period of June-7-2005 to January-31-2006, consisting of total 28
sessions, once each week lasting 90 minutes. A post-test was made after the first week of the
program, and a further study after the 12th week.
SPSS-WIN 12.0 was employed for data analysis, in that BDI(Beck Depression Inventory) and
BAI(Beck Anxiety Inventory) were carried out three times, that is, before, after, and further
after the group art therapy program was conducted, so as to analyze the test results by paired
sample t-test. Also analyzed and compared were the patterns of behavioral changes of the
experimental group between early sessions of the program and after the entire program, while
SWT(Star-Wave-Test) was applied to check the comparative difference among the pre-test, the
post-test, and the further-test.
The results obtained from the study were as follows.
First, group art therapy turns out effective for alleviating depression of the single-parent
adolescents (t=4.05, p<.05). But group art therapy made no significant difference in reducing
anxiety of the single-parent adolescents (t=2.45, p>.05).
Second, in the course of group art therapy(early period, later period), the patterns of behavioral
changes of single-parent adolescents show some reduction of their depression and anxiety.
Third, as to the changes in depression and anxiety detected by the SWT(Star-Wave test)
test, the adolescents' depression and anxiety have been reduced.
Key Words : Group Art Therapy, Adolescents in the Single Parent Families, Depression,
Anxiety