A meta-analysis of the effectiveness of group art therapy for children and adolescents of multicultural families: A focus on Korea

Various policies and support have been implemented to help children and adolescents from multicultural families in Korea to psychologically and socially adapt to society and to improve their quality of life as members of Korean society. In this regard, group art therapy has been widely used and numerous studies have demonstrated its effectiveness. Accordingly, this study investigated the effectiveness of group art therapy in children and adolescents from multicultural families and individual research results were aggregated and analyzed to use as a scientific foundation. A total of eight databases based on English or Korean (Scopus, Web of Science, ProQuest, PubMed, Google Scholar, RISS, National Library of Korea, and National Assembly Library) were utilized to retrieve all research articles published by August 2022. The final 20 research articles were selected through a systematic review according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines. The comprehensive meta-analysis (CMA) 2.0 was utilized to analyze the effect size, possible causes of heterogeneity were explored, and publication bias was identified. As a major result, the total effect size was proven to be significantly large (Hedges’ g = 1.81). Furthermore, the largest effect size among the dependent variables was found in the negative domain of psychology/emotion corresponding to emotional and behavioral problems, acculturative stress, and bicultural stress (Hedges’ g = 2.55), followed by the static domain of psychology/emotion (2.29), sociality (1.93), and ego (1.83).