Actually, today was a good day, so today we're doing all right: Parental perspectives on a dyadic group art therapy intervention for parent and infant wellbeing and attachments

TY - JOUR

T1 - Actually, today was a good day, so today we're doing all right

T2 - Parental perspectives on a dyadic group art therapy intervention for parent and infant wellbeing and attachments

AU - Armstrong, Vicky

AU - Ross, Josephine

N1 - © 2023 Published by Elsevier.

PY - 2023/9

Y1 - 2023/9

N2 - In this study we sought to capture the experiences of parents who had attended a parent-infant art therapy group to support their wellbeing and attachment relationships. The groups lasted 12 weeks and had a focus on using shared art making experiences to bring the dyads into positive interactions. 50 parents attended the groups with their children. We asked them to complete surveys at the end of the art therapy group and later` followed up a sample of participants for in depth interviews. We analysed both of these using reflexive thematic analysis. Our organisation of themes lays out the difficulties facing parents, what enabled them to take part, the mechanisms of change within the art therapy intervention, and the outcomes parents observed. The analysis evidences the changes parents identified in how they felt themselves and how they felt about their baby, with an important shift to enjoying their role as parents, feeling more confident about their parenting, tuning in to their babies’ cues, and enjoying the emerging personalities of their babies. It highlights the potential of art therapy to support parental wellbeing and parent infant attachment relationships.

AB - In this study we sought to capture the experiences of parents who had attended a parent-infant art therapy group to support their wellbeing and attachment relationships. The groups lasted 12 weeks and had a focus on using shared art making experiences to bring the dyads into positive interactions. 50 parents attended the groups with their children. We asked them to complete surveys at the end of the art therapy group and later` followed up a sample of participants for in depth interviews. We analysed both of these using reflexive thematic analysis. Our organisation of themes lays out the difficulties facing parents, what enabled them to take part, the mechanisms of change within the art therapy intervention, and the outcomes parents observed. The analysis evidences the changes parents identified in how they felt themselves and how they felt about their baby, with an important shift to enjoying their role as parents, feeling more confident about their parenting, tuning in to their babies’ cues, and enjoying the emerging personalities of their babies. It highlights the potential of art therapy to support parental wellbeing and parent infant attachment relationships.

KW - Art therapy

KW - Dyadic

KW - Parent-Infant

KW - Thematic analysis

KW - Wellbeing

KW - Attachments

UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/85165227728

U2 - 10.1016/j.aip.2023.102057

DO - 10.1016/j.aip.2023.102057

M3 - Article

SN - 0197-4556

VL - 85

JO - Arts in Psychotherapy

JF - Arts in Psychotherapy

M1 - 102057

ER -