The effectiveness of group art therapy in a clinically heterogenous sample: Randomized controlled trial

The goal of this study was to examine the effects of group art therapy on different measures of both therapeutic processes (group cohesion and art therapy-related emotional regulation) and therapeutic outcomes (self-esteem, social state self-esteem, and distress) in a clinically heterogenous sample. This is a pretest-posttest control group design with a random allocation of participants, i.e., randomized control trial. The sample consisted of 160 patients (68.75% female) aged 14 to 73 years (M = 43.19, SD = 14.06; n_ART = 87, n_TAU=73). Participants completed self-report measures of distress (depression, anxiety, and stress), self-esteem, social state self-esteem, group cohesion (GCQ), and self-expression and emotion regulation in art therapy (SERATS). The group art therapy lasted for six once-a-week sessions were 90 min long. GCQ and SERATS have unidimensional factor structures. The results showed that art therapy has statistically significant positive effects on group cohesion, self-esteem, and social state self-esteem, and lowering effects on anxiety as compared to active treatment-as-usual. Moreover, self-expression and emotional regulation during art therapy increased in the art therapy group. The measures of mental health outcomes and psychotherapeutic processes are meaningfully related in the art therapy group. In conclusion, this study presents some novel evidence for the benefits of art therapy.