EFFECTIVENESS OF ARTS EXPRESSION AS INTERVENTION TO REDUCE MENTAL HEALTH-RELATED STIGMA AMONG ADOLESCENTS

Abstract

This study examines the effectiveness of art expression as an intervention for reducing mental health-related stigma among adolescents in Brgy. Bagong Silangan. Using a quasi-experimental design, the research aims to assess changes in attitudes toward mental health after participating in an arts-based program. Participants, aged 12 to 19, were divided into intervention groups. The researchers employed purposive sampling to gather data for the study and administered a survey questionnaire during both the pre-test and post-test phases to evaluate the intervention's outcomes. The demographic profile by gender indicates that 53% of the respondents are female and 47% are male. The majority of the respondents are aged 13-15 years (50%), followed by those aged 10-12 years (25%) and 16-19 years (25%).   The findings of the current study reveal that the respondents exhibited a significant level of creativity, with a weighted mean score of 2.47. The technical skills also showed a weighted mean score of 2.52. Additionally, the study found that adolescents' ability to express their emotions through art significantly improved after the intervention, as reflected in a weighted mean score of 2.47.   The data suggests that the arts intervention effectively enhanced adolescents' confidence in their artistic abilities, as evidenced by a significant increase in the weighted mean score from 2.47. The Shapiro-Wilk normality test conducted to assess data distribution resulted in a pretest p-value of 0.00, indicating a significant deviation from normality, as it is below the significance level of 0.05. The pretest had an average score of 2.39 (SD = 0.44), while the posttest showed a significant increase to 3.27 (SD = 0.67), demonstrating an improvement in art expression effectiveness.  The Wilcoxon Signed Ranks Test produced a Z-value of -7.82 and a p-value of 0.00, which is well below the significance level of 0.05. Consequently, the null hypothesis was rejected, confirming that the observed change was statistically significant. Furthermore, emotional resilience had a weighted mean of 3.20, while self-stigma before the intervention had a weighted mean of 3.36, indicating that adolescents became more accepting of their emotions. Social connection through art was measured with a weighted mean of 3.27. The study indicates that fostering supportive environments for authentic self-expression can help alleviate the challenges of balancing personal expression with external expectations, thus enhancing the positive experience of art therapy.