This study showed the efficiency of group art therapy programs using sewing on depression and the self-efficacy of mothers whose children have disabilities.
This program focused on the positive aspects of sewing which gives a pleasant feeling to the mothers involved. While sewing we are immersed in repetitive behavior, while keeping our hands moving, and we can concentrate on what we are doing. This study gave new meaning to sewing where the needle is the self as the subject and the thread is the environment which is changeable.
The subjects in the study were 3 mothers whose children were cared for in A center located in G city and the period of the study was from June to December of 2012. The program was done once a week for 100 minutes each session and lasted for 18 sessions.
The instruments of the study were the Beck Depression Inventory(BDI), the Self-Efficacy Scale(SES) for quantitative analysis of the effect, and a House-Tree-Person test(HTP) for qualitative analysis.
The results of the study are presented as follows:
First, as a result of the program, it was discovered that the depression of the subjects became significantly lower in normal levels and in subscales, negative attitudes and performance difficulties had changed in the subjects to be more positive.
Second, after the program using sewing based on positive psychology, the self-efficacy of the subjects had improved and of the subscales, confidence and self-control were enhanced.
Third, it was discovered that the group art therapy program had a positive effect on the behavior of the subjects in each session. In each session, through analysis, the depression of the subjects decreased and they were more motivated, and as self-efficacy had recovered, subjective happiness increased.
Through the results presented above, it was shown that a group art therapy program using sewing based on positive psychology has a positive effect on the depression and self-efficacy of mothers whose children have disabilities.
The art therapy program using sewing proposed in this study has meaning in that it was conducted without any results from previous studies and was given to mothers whose children have disabilities for the first time. In the future, it is expected that manualized based standardized programs should be developed and expanded to more diverse types of subjects in order to systematically prove the effectiveness.