The Effectiveness of Expressive Art Group Therapy on Increasing Behavioral and Emotional Components of Self-Concept of Children in Family-Like Community Centers

The purpose of this study was to examine effectiveness of expressive art group therapy on increasing behavioral and emotional components of self-concept of girls living in family-like centers of Mashhad. The present study was administered with a quasi-experimental design. Statistical society included all primary school parentless and poor-parenting girls living in family-like centers of Mashhad. 28 persons were chosen by available method among two eligible of these centers and placed randomly into experimental and control groups. Children Self Concept Scale (1969) was completed by participants in two stages, before and one week after intervention. Expressive art group therapy as an intervention was given experimental group in 10 sessions, two sessions per week, each session, 90 minutes and data were proceeded by repeated measures analysis of variance. Result showed that children of experimental group in Behavioral Adjustment, Physical Appearance and Attributes, Freedom from Anxiety and Happiness and Satisfaction were superior to children of control group, but scores of Popularity were not significant in two groups. It seems that expressive art group therapy can be useful to increase behavioral and emotional components of self-concept of girls living in family-like centers.