"The present study was conducted as the number of children institutionalized due to parents’ divorce was increasing and it was believed that the intervention of psychological therapy was necessary for the children. The subject was an elementary third grade(nine‐year‐old) male child. As this child showed the tendency of increasing aggressiveness while he was in a facility(orphanage) because of his parents’ divorce and it was considered necessary to apply a therapeutic approach, the child was referred to the present researcher by the social worker. The research period was from September 25 to December 22 in 2003, and a total of 26 sessions of art therapy were applied, twice a week and 60 minutes per session. The results of this study are as follows. First, in the results of tests using Korean-Child Behavior Checklist, the score decreased from 89T in the pretest to 62T in the posttest. Second, in the results of tests using a self‐reporting aggressiveness scale, the score decreased from 15 point in the pretest to 9.25 in the posttest. Third, in the results of tests using Kinetic School Drawing, the distance between the image of teacher and the image of self decreased considerably from 150mm in the pretest to 50mm in the posttest, suggesting a positive change in intimacy. Fourth, according to the teacher’s report, the child showed a change in attitude toward examination as he became interested in learning. Fifth, when the process of change over the stages of art therapy was examined, aggressive contents were changed to hopeful contents. In conclusion, although this research was a case study on a child, aggressiveness was reduced uniformly in each measuring tool and this suggests that art therapy can be an effective therapeutic approach for institutionalized children with divorced parents.
Key Words : Parents’ divorce, Institutionalized children, Aggressiveness, Art therapy
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