The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of art therapy on the improvement of family resilience of a single-father family. The subjects were a single father and his 8 year old boy who participated in art therapy for a total of 9 sessions over four time periods. The program executed two or three sessions each time for 50 minutes. The effectiveness of the program was analyzed by pre and post tests with scales of family resilience, KFD and behavior observation. Results of the study are as follows: First, there was a positive change on discovering and perceiving family strengths with mutual support and encouraging behaviors between father and son. Second, the effects of communication improvement showed that communication score of father was increased and dynamics of open expression and response to his son also increased on KFD. There was also increased appropriate communication style of the father to control the child's misbehaviors according to behavior observation. Third, the effects of clarifying family role and family boundary revealed no improvement on strengthening
family role and boundary for both father and son as the family role scores were decreased. In conclusion, art therapy had the effect of improving two sub-factors of family resilience, family strengths and communication. The results of the case study suggested that strengthening family role and boundary were needed to reinforce family resilience for a single-father family. A more profound research and intervention should be carried out to intensify and strengthen family resilience for single-father families.
Key Words : Family Resilience, Single-Father Family, Family Strengths, Communication