This study provides a comprehensive analysis of previous studies on art therapy programs designed
to treat the disabled as well as help the non-disabled better understand physically and mentally challenged
people. It aims to facilitate further development of the programs and improve service quality. To this end,
a meta-analysis was carried out based on 104 master's and doctoral theses written in Korea from 2000
to 2011, including those published in academic journals.
It turns out the average effect size of positive therapy sessions is 0.698, narrowly falling short of having
a large effect, and that of programs bringing about negative outcomes is 0.277, a fairly small effect size.
The study found that art therapy services which have a positive impact (as opposed to negative) benefit
people with disabilities the most, and psychotherapy proved to be the most effective among other things.
Furthermore, art therapy worked better for female patients than for their male counterparts, and individual
sessions produced better treatment outcomes in comparison with group therapy sessions. The implications
of study findings and proposals for further study are presented at the end.