13 THE EMOTIONAL EFFECTS OF DRAWING ART THERAPY ON STUDENTS WITH MENTAL DISORDERS
Authors: Xu Tong 
Published: February 2025

Abstract

Background
Mental disorders are an important issue affecting students’ mental health, especially among adolescents and students, where emotional problems and behavioral disorders are common. Studies have shown that difficulty in emotional regulation is one of the main characteristics of students with mental disorders. In recent years, painting art therapy, as a non-drug treatment method, has gradually been applied to the field of psychotherapy. Through artistic creation, students can express their inner emotions, relieve negative emotions, and improve self-cognition and emotional regulation abilities. The study aims to explore the effects of painting art therapy on the emotions of students with mental disorders, especially in reducing anxiety, depression and mood swings.

Methods
The study selected 60 students diagnosed with mental disorders and randomly divided them into an experimental group and a control group, with 30 people in each group. The experimental group received 8 weeks of painting art therapy, twice a week, 60 minutes each time. The treatment content includes free painting, emotional expression and theme creation, etc., to help students identify and release emotions through artistic activities. The control group continued to receive conventional psychological counseling and behavioral therapy. The study used the Mood States Scale (MSS) and the Anxiety and Depression Scale (ADS) to evaluate the students’ emotional state and mental health before and after. The evaluation indicators included anxiety, depression, mood swings, and self-cognition ability.

Results
The experimental group showed significant improvement in mood after receiving painting art therapy. The anxiety score decreased from 30.5 before intervention to 19.3 after intervention, with an improvement of 11.2 points (P &lt; 0.05). The depression score decreased from 28.4 to 18.2, with an improvement of 10.2 points (P &lt; 0.05). The mood swing score decreased from 32.0 to 20.4, with an improvement of 11.6 points (P &lt; 0.05). In contrast, the mood improvement of the control group was more limited, with the anxiety score only decreasing from 30.2 to 28.6, the depression score decreasing from 28.1 to 27.2, and the mood swing score decreasing from 31.8 to 30.4, all of which did not reach significant differences (P &gt; 0.05). In addition, the experimental group also showed significant improvement in self-cognition ability, with the score increasing from 25.3 to 34.7, an increase of 9.4 points (P &lt; 0.05), while the control group had a smaller change, with the score increasing from 25.2 to 27.4, an increase of 2.2 points.

Discussion
Research shows that painting art therapy can significantly improve the emotional state of students with mental disorders, especially in reducing anxiety, depression and mood swings. As an innovative psychological treatment method, painting art therapy can not only effectively relieve the emotional distress of students with mental disorders, but also improve their emotional expression ability and psychological adaptability. Future research can explore the differences in responses to drawing art therapy among students with mental disorders of different ages or different symptom presentations, as well as the possibility of combining this method with other therapies to further optimize treatment strategies.