한지를 이용한 집단미술치료가 노인의 죽음불안과 삶의 만족도에 미치는 영향

Effects of Group Art Therapy by Using Hanji(Korean hand-made paper) on Death Anxiety and Life Satisfaction of the Elderly

The purpose of this study was to examine effects of group art therapy by using Hanji (Korean hand-made paper) on death anxiety and life satisfaction of the elderly. From a pool of elderly persons who completed the battery of tests given testing sessions, twenty individuals (10 experimental group participants and 10 control group participants) who scored both above the 60th percentile on the death anxiety scale and below 40th percentile on the elderly life satisfaction scale, were scheduled as participants. Besides the participants were all volunteers, aged sixty-five years and over. This group art therapy program comprised 24 sessions by twice a week. The experiment had a 2×2 factorial design that included one within-subjects variable (test order : pretest or posttest) and one between-subjects variable(group : experimental group or control group). The results obtained are as follows: First, group art therapy by using Hanji had a positive effect on death anxiety with the consequence that participants of experimental group showed a significant decrease in death anxiety. Second, group art therapy by using Hanji had a positive effect on life satisfaction of the elderly. Participants of experimental group who received the group art therapy by using Hanji showed a significant increase in life satisfaction. Then on the basis of the positive emotion, negative emotion, positive experience and negative experience subheads of the life satisfaction scale, I investigated a detailed change. The four subheads of the life satisfaction scale also showed a significant effects. of the four subheads of the life satisfaction scale, the positive experience subhead showed the strongest changes. These results suggest that the group art therapy by using Hanji become effective for the elderly as indexed by decreases in evaluations of death anxiety, and increases in evaluation of life satisfaction. We accordingly must not underestimate the effect of group art therapy by using Hanji. Future research should diversify comparative study of the subject and between Hanji and other art materials.