Holding environment: The effects of group art therapy on mother–child attachment

This study examined the change in the child-rearing behavior of mothers who re-experienced skills of maternal care and developed positive self regard after receiving group art therapy based on the concepts of Winnicott's “facilitating environment.” The participants were 12 mothers of young children aged 2–12 living in city D. They were divided into an experimental group of six and a control group of six. The program consisted of 16 sessions and ran from July 13th, 2010 to September 10th, 2010. Responses to the Parental Acceptance–Rejection Questionnaire were analyzed before and after the program. The session evaluations were analyzed. The Mann–Whitney U test was used to check the homogeneity between the control and experimental group. The independent-samples t-test was used to investigate the effects of the program.Implementation of group art therapy, based on the concepts of Winnicott's facilitating environment, found significant differences on the rejection subscale. Significantly low scores were found on the aggression/hostility, a subcategory of the rejection subscale. The findings of this study suggest that group art therapy can be effective in changing the mothers’ child-rearing behavior.

► This study examined change in child-rearing attitudes of mothers who re-experienced skills of maternal care and developed a positive self after receiving group art therapy based on Winnicott's facilitating environment. ► 12 mothers participated and they were divided into two groups of six, one for the experiment the other for a control. ► Implementation of group art therapy, based on Winnicott's facilitating environment, yielded significant effects from the rejection dimension among the acceptance and rejection dimension. ► This study suggests that group art therapy, based on Winnicott's facilitating environment, can be effective in changing the mothers’ nurturing attitudes.