Increasing ego-resilience using clay with low SES (Social Economic Status) adolescents in group art therapy

This study examined how clay-based group art therapy, including pottery-making, might produce effects on the ego-resilience of low SES (Social Economic Status) adolescents. The participants in this study were 16 adolescents in an educational welfare program in a city middle school in Gyeonggi Province. The participants were divided into two groups of 8 – the experimental group and the control group – and received a total of 18 sessions of the therapy program, once a week, for 80 min in each session.The participants’ ego-resilience was measured before the first session after the last session, and in a follow-up test one month after the end of the program. Means and standard deviations from the tests were compared, and repeated measures analysis of the variance and simple main effects were computed using SPSS 18.0.It was found that clay-based group art therapy produced positive effects on the ego-resilience of low SES adolescents. These findings are attributed to the participants’ successful experience of seeing clay becoming complete pottery through kiln firing and feeling the suppleness and plasticity of clay. The significance of this study lies in the finding that clay-based group art therapy produces positive effects on the adolescents’ ego-resilience, a personal trait that helps with mental and emotional adaptation in a changing and conflicting environment.

► This study examined the effects of clay-based group art therapy on the ego-resilience of adolescents.
► The plasticity and suppleness of clay contributed to the emotional loosening among the adolescents.
► Clay-based group art therapy produced positive effects on the ego-resilience of the adolescents.