AI Insight
This qualitative study examined how 20 Chinese children aged 8-12 experienced a 10-week art therapy program, focusing on their drawing processes and emotional resilience development. Through analysis of observations, interviews, and 200 drawings, researchers identified four key themes showing that children used drawing to externalize difficult emotions, create symbolic meaning through visual narratives, transform fear into personal agency, and develop emotional resilience and future orientation. The phenomenological analysis revealed that art therapy served as a bridge between emotion and meaning-making, helping children develop emotional awareness and coping skills.
Why it matters
The findings suggest art therapy may be an effective alternative for children who struggle to verbalize difficult emotions, with potential applications in educational settings, counseling, and therapeutic practice. However, as a qualitative study without control groups or independent outcome measures, it describes perceived experiences rather than demonstrating measurable therapeutic effects.
Understand the Science
Children often struggle to verbalise difficult emotions, which makes therapeutic methods that support their emotional health and wellbeing particularly important. This study examined the relationship between art therapy, children’s drawing processes, and emotional resilience from a phenomenologically oriented psychological perspective in China. The study aimed to understand children’s experiences of drawing during art therapy and the role of these experiences in meaning-making and the development of resilience. A qualitative phenomenological design was used with 20 children (aged 8–12 years) who took part in a 10-week art therapy programme delivered across three settings. Data were collected through participant observation, semi-structured interviews, reflective dialogue, and analysis of 200 drawings, and were analysed following transcendental phenomenological procedure. Four interconnected themes emerged: Drawing as Emotional Externalisation, Symbolic Meaning-Making Through Visual Narratives, Transformation of Fear into Agency, and Emergence of Emotional Resilience and Future Orientation. Participants described drawing as a means of externalising difficult emotions, constructing personal meaning through symbols and stories, and developing a stronger sense of agency and coping. The findings suggest that art therapy can function as a developmental bridge connecting emotion and meaning, supporting children’s experienced sense of resilience through emotional awareness, reflective understanding, and self-expression. As a qualitative study without a comparison group or independent outcome measures, the findings describe children’s perceived and experienced changes rather than demonstrated therapeutic effects; with this caveat, the results carry exploratory implications for education, counselling, and therapeutic practice aimed at supporting children’s psychological wellbeing.