Efficacy of the Transactional Model of Acceptance Art Therapy Program on Psychological Distress among Parentally Bereaved Female Adolescents

Loss is a universal experience. Losing a loved one is one of the most agonizing and distressful experiences of an adolescent. It may lead to long-term adverse consequences in terms of emotional, psychological and physical aspects of one's life. Recognizing the need, the researcher aimed to develop a therapeutic intervention Transactional Model of Acceptance Art Therapy (T AA T) to reduce psychological distress among the parentally bereaved female adolescents with prolonged grief and on-going psychological distress. The intervention is based on the Transactional Model of Stress and Coping Theory, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy model and Art Therapy. The study was conducted in two phases using a mixed research approach specifically the exploratory-sequential method. The first phase focused on the development and the validation of the intervention and in the second phase through true experimental research method, assessed the efficacy of TAA T. For the data gathering, the study made use of Depression Anxiety Stress Scale (DASS-21) and Prolonged Grief -13, semi-structured interview and focus group discussion. The data were statistically analyzedusing the mean score, paired t-test, and Cohen's d test and results showed that significant difference (p=0.001) at 0.05 level between the pre-test and post-test results of the experimental group measured by DASS-21 and Cohen's d test discovered the great outcome of the program. The findings of the study revealed that the Transactional Model of Acceptance Art Therapy is an operative program for reducing psychological distress among the parentally bereaved female adolescents.