This study is based to examine the effects of the "Group Art Therapy" program. Major focus is on whether such treatments has an effect on self-respect feeling and bringabout positive influence in adapting to school life. In order to study such matter,...
This study is based to examine the effects of the "Group Art Therapy" program. Major focus is on whether such treatments has an effect on self-respect feeling and bringabout positive influence in adapting to school life. In order to study such matter, I have established the following subject of study.
Subject of study: Does "Group Art Therapy"program have an effect in self-respect of children and help them adapt to their school life better?
Prior to the study, I have established the following hypothesis to investigate such subject of study:
1. The experiment group, which receives the treatment, compared to the group that do not, will show a difference in the level of self-esteem.
2. The experiment group, which receives the treatment, compared to the group that do not, will show a difference in their adaptation to school life.
3. The experiment group that receives the treatment, compared to the group that do not, will show different affects in their adaptation to school life in all aspects (general school adaptation, attitude towards teachers & authorities, class behaviors, understanding of rules, fellowship, in acceptance of school events).
In order to conduct the study, children that are in similar level and condition must be selected first through testing. Getting the homogeneity sample is most important in obtaining the unbiased data. Second, children will be divided into two groups: 1) treatment 2) no treatment. Then, the treatment will only be applied to the "treatment" group over time and collect the data from both groups. The aspects that will be measured and recorded are: a) general school adaptation, b) attitude towards teachers & authorities, c) class behaviors, d) understanding of rules, e) fellowship and f) acceptance of school events.
The target samples will be selected from grade two. A total sample consisted of 78 students, 39 belonged to the "treatment" group and the other 39 belonged to the "no treatment" group. The "treatment" group received 12 sessions of the "Group Art Therapy" while the "no treatment" group received none. The data collected prior and after the experiment from two groups were compared.
The experiment that was applied in this study is re-usual of Coopersmith (1987)'s Self-Esteem Inventory (SEI) translated by Yoon-Jung-Hae. Also, the aspects that were measured regarding school adaptation were based from Kim-Ho-Kwan's survey made for high school student called "My School", that was published by the Korean Testing Center. Moon-Gyo-Min (1994) modifiedthe survey in the level for elementary students and the survey was executedby Kim-Hae-Kyoung (1999). I have reused the six aspects of that were conducted in Kim-Hae-Kyoung's experiment. The aspects were measure in the 5-point scale.
Data processing analysis in the experiment was done through Korean version of SPSS 12.0 for the Window Software. To draw a comparison, "T" test was performed.
The result of this study is as follows.
First, the "treatment" group showed a difference (p<.001) in the children's self-esteem. Second, the "treatment" group showed a difference (p<.001) in children's school adaptation skills. Thirdly, the "treatment" group also showed difference(p<.01) in six aspects that were measured in regards to school adaptation (general school adaptation, attitude towards teachers & authorities, class behaviors, understanding of rules, fellowship and acceptance of school events). However, the "no treatment" group showed no difference in all areas.
The study clearly shows that the "Group Art Therapy"have a positive effect on elementary students in their self-esteem and school adaptations. But, the test samples were collected from a limited area and the testing was performed only for a short period of time. Also, the experiment conductor and instructor placed in the study is an identical person. Thus, succession study is required with much more diverse samples and conditions.