COVID, Creativity, and Connecting Through Change: Reviewing the Literature on How Art Therapy Can Help Children and Adolescents Cope with Pandemic-Related Grief

Author

Lydia SpeicherFollow

Date of Award

Spring 5-5-2023

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

MA - Master of Arts

Department

Expressive Therapies

Advisor

Raquel Stephenson

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has been one of the most significant global events in the past century, both resulting in massive casualties and significant mental health outcomes across the world. Some of the most impacted populations are children and adolescents whose lives have been interrupted during their formative years. The purpose of this literature review is to explore how art therapy has been used during the COVID-19 pandemic to address the grief experienced by children and adolescents through their losses of stability and peer support surrounded by uncertainty. This literature review seeks to understand exactly how the pandemic has affected the mental health of young people, the definition of grief beyond death, and what art therapy can do to begin healing from these losses. Findings of this review reveal that there is more research to be done on this specific subject, but the work of grief art therapy so far has laid a foundation for further exploration. Meaning construction theory paired with developmentally appropriate directives may be most effective with this population.

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Recommended Citation

Speicher, Lydia, "COVID, Creativity, and Connecting Through Change: Reviewing the Literature on How Art Therapy Can Help Children and Adolescents Cope with Pandemic-Related Grief" (2023). Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses. 672.
https://digitalcommons.lesley.edu/expressive_theses/672