The Art Room: An evaluation of a targeted school-based group intervention for students with emotional and behavioural difficulties

Journal article

The Art Room is a targeted group intervention delivered in schools for students with emotional and behavioural difficulties. Since the start of the project, over 10,000 students have been through The Art Room intervention, which aims to address psychological difficulties that impede students’ school experience. This paper reports on a quantitative evaluation of the impact of The Art Room on students’ emotional and behavioural problems. Questionnaires on psychological functioning were administered before and after attending The Art Room. Teachers completed the SDQ and children completed the sMFQ. Students showed a significant reduction in emotional and behavioural problems (teacher-reported SDQ scores) and clinical caseness. There was also a significant improvement in their mood and feelings (child-reported sMFQ), with an 87.5% improvement in those students who were depressed at baseline. The intervention is improving students’ emotional and behavioural problems and promoting prosocial behaviour at school.

Authors: Cortina, M; Fazel, M

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Journal: Arts in Psychotherapy
• Volume: 42
• Issue: Feb 2015
• Pages: 35-40
• Publication date: 2014-12-22
• Acceptance date: 2014-12-14
• DOI: 10.1016/j.aip.2014.12.003
• EISSN: 1873-5878
• ISSN: 0197-4556
• Keywords: emotional and behavioural problems; adolescents; art as therapy; school-based intervention; SBTMR; children