The Effectiveness of Painting Therapy on Increase of Self-Esteem and Self-Efficacy among Unaccompanied Children in Karaj City, Iran

Aim and Art therapy has been known as an innovative way of growth and development of human’s physical, mental, and emotional health. Through the intricate process of painting and drawing, a child would be able to engage discrete elements of his/her experiences to create the totality of a meaningful work. Within this productive mechanism, a child, in format of artwork, is representing something beyond a simple work which is his/her attempts to display a part of his/her ego as well as how he/she thinks feels, and sees. This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of painting therapy on of self-esteem and self-efficacy among unaccompanied children of 5-12 years old in Karaj City, Iran.
Methods and Materials: This was a semi-experimental study with pretest/posttest method and control group. The sample was 15 boys and 15 girls at the age of 5-12 years who were randomly selected from unsupervised children at Karaj Welfare. Children and adolescents’ self-efficacy questionnaire (SEQ-C), Coopersmith children and adolescents’ self-esteem questionnaire, and the projection painting were utilized as evaluation tools. In order to analyze the data and test the hypothesis, one-way univariate analysis of covariance, and the average evaluation of two independent groups for differential grading were used.
Findings: The intervention in research affected the enhancement of unaccompanied children’s general self-esteem, social self-esteem, and self-esteem total score as well as emotional, social, and general self-efficacy.
Painting therapy as a psychological intervention could be used as effective strategy to increase self-esteem and self-efficacy in child advocacy centers.