The single mothers who experienced a big crisis such as divorce or death of their spouse are vulnerable to a variety of psychological or emotional difficulties due to economic burden for child-rearing and family finances and social prejudices.
While...
The single mothers who experienced a big crisis such as divorce or death of their spouse are vulnerable to a variety of psychological or emotional difficulties due to economic burden for child-rearing and family finances and social prejudices.
While the number of single mother family rises with the increasing number of a divorced woman in particular, their income level and standard of living are classified as the lowest and are reported to have a high potential to enter into that of the poor strata. Also, many of them increasingly faced child-rearing stress and social prejudices, which led them to have psychological problems such as a sense
of anxiety, depression, anger, alienation, guilt, lethargy, and worthlessness.
Therefore, this study was conducted to find out how helpful group art therapy is to anxiety, depression and self-esteem of low-income single mothers who experienced a big crisis such as divorce or death of their spouse and have been taking a role of a single mother responsible for child-rearing and family finances and vulnerable to a variety of psychological difficulties including social prejudices.
The target group of this study consisted 8 single mothers who live in OO-gu, Seoul and belong to the lowest or second lowest income group. The group art therapy programs took place in D Welfare Center on every Saturday from September to November in 2012. Each program lasted for 120 minutes from 10 AM to 12 PM, 8 sessions total.
Methodology in this study was to analyze and assess changes between preand post-therapy test that each group members completed and shows their Beck's
Anxiety Inventory (BAI), Beck's Depression Inventory (BDI), and Self-Esteem Inventory (SEI). Also, the effectiveness of group art therapy and the process of
individual and group changes were analyzed with a focus on curative factors of Yalom's theory.
The result of this study shows that group art therapy is effective in reducing anxiety and depression and improving self-esteem of low-income single mothers.
Also, Yalom's curative factors-oriented analysis on the process of individual and group art therapy implies group art therapy is helpful in making positive changes including the instillation of hopes, catharsis, the development of socialization, the establishment of positive image of oneself and the future by forming psychological base of support. Such a result suggests that a group art therapy program not only reduces anxiety and depression and improve self-esteem of low-income single mothers but also can be used as an effective program in solving single parent-related mental problems and supporting their mental health.