Exploring Self-Esteem and Aggression in Young Adolescents with Unfavourable Family Climate: An Art-Based Intervention

Residing in unfavourable family climates has debilitating effects on the physical and mental health of its members. The symptoms become more pronounced in children due to their tender age and lack of coping skills. Major impact of having an unhealthy family environment is seen in children’s sense of self-worth and externalising aggressive behaviour. This pilot study aimed to assess the impact of a 12-week art intervention on the levels of self-esteem and aggression amongst young adolescents. For the purpose of the pilot research 6 eligible young adolescents were selected and randomly allocated to experimental and control group. The 12-week art-based intervention was employed and self-esteem and aggression were measured before the start and after the end of the program. The descriptive analysis of the pilot research showed that mean of self-esteem increased from 25.67 to 31.67 and the mean of aggression showed a decrease 68.66 to 60.33. Wilcoxon signed rank test was used to assess whether the differences in the means are statistically significant or not. The analysis showed improvement in both the variables; however, the changes weren’t statistically significant at 0.05 level. This might be due to a very small sample size that was selected for the research. The study, nonetheless, shows promising trends and requires validation with a larger sample size.