This randomized controlled study examined the effects of creating open circle mandalas with divergent instruction type (distraction and reflection) and medium type (resistive and fluid) on state anxiety, mood, and mindfulness. The design followed a 2 (instruction type) x 2 (medium type) x 3 (time) mixed experimental design. Reflective writing…

This study investigated art therapy-based self-help online tasks (ATB-SHOT) as a means to support university students during the COVID-19 lockdown by (a) measuring effectiveness on mood repair (Positive and Negative Affect Schedule and Self-Assessment Manikin scales, pre- and postintervention) and (b) correlating outcomes with participants'…

This publication presents the qualitative findings from a mixed-method pilot study on three- and four-drawing protocols for chronic pain, which have demonstrated significant positive quantitative results. For this report, thematic analysis and magnitude coding of drawing titles, narratives, and characteristics including resource representations…

We evaluated changes in positive and negative affect of grieving children in response to art making compared to another noncreative, non-expressive, but engaging visuospatial task and assessed whether art making was equally or differentially effective in individual versus collaborative settings. We randomly assigned grieving children to one of…

The authors hypothesized that a textile art-making activity that was high in arousal, engagement, and positive mood and low in rumination and negative affect would be most effective for mood repair and would buffer inflammatory immune reactions. Forty-seven experienced textile handcrafters were asked to recall an upsetting situation before random…

This study examined the effects of expressive media (drawing versus writing) and emotion regulation strategy (coping by venting versus coping by distraction) on short-term mood repair. After inducing a sad mood in 40 participants, the researchers randomly assigned them to one of two conditions: drawing or writing. Mood valence was assessed before…