The Effectiveness of Expressive Group Art Therapy on Decreasing Anxiety of Orphaned Children

The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of expressive arts therapy on decreasing anxiety of orphaned girls living in family-like centers of Mashhad, Iran. One week prior to final examinations, participants were randomly assigned to either an expressive art-making group or a control group. The State-trait anxiety inventory was administered before and after participation. Expressive art making activities included painting or coloring predesigned Mandalas, free-form painting, collage making, still life drawing, and modeling with clay. The mean state anxiety score between pre-activity and post-activity decreased significantly in the expressive art-making group, whereas no difference was found in the control group. Similarly, the mean trait anxiety score between pre- and post-activity in the artmaking group was significantly lower, and no difference was observed in the controls. These findings suggest that a brief period of expressive art making can significantly reduce a person’s state of anxiety, which may have implications for art and art therapy programs that offer methods for helping orphaned children coping with stress.