Volume 6, Issue 3 (Summer 2020)                   JCCNC 2020, 6(3): 193-202 | Back to browse issues page


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Khodabakhshi-Koolaee A, Darestani-Farahani F. Mandala Coloring as Jungian Art to Reduce Bullying and Increase Social Skills. JCCNC 2020; 6 (3) :193-202
URL: http://jccnc.iums.ac.ir/article-1-269-en.html
1- Department of Psychology and Educational Sciences, Faculty of Humanities, Khatam University, Tehran, Iran. , a.khodabakhshid@khatam.ac.ir
2- Department of Psychology, Faculty of Humanities, Tehran North Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran.
Full-Text [PDF 1173 kb]   (1420 Downloads)     |   Abstract (HTML)  (2511 Views)
● Being a refugee and forced to work as a child leads to psychosocial problems in working children.
● Informal education and art therapy reduce psychological traumas in working children. 
● In this research, coloring mandala as Jungian art helped working Afghan children to corporate better with each other and experience less bullying behavior.
Plain Language Summary 
Refugee children are growing around the world. War, economic problems, limited opportunities for work, and welfare are among the reasons that people leave their hometown to search for a better place to live. Mandala art was first introduced by Carl Jung, the Swiss psychiatrist to reduce psychological stress. Coloring mandala has been used for individuals with a speech problem, restricted social contact, those facing psychological trauma, such as war, sexual abuse, and accidents. It is used for children to help them create their art and experience a relaxing time. In this research, a mandala coloring was used for working Afghan boys. The results indicated that their bullying behavior declined, while their social skills increased after the training. 

Full-Text:   (1722 Views)
1. Introduction
he issue of migrant working children is among the current problems of host societies. The negative impact of child labor on their healthy development is a serious subject. Children should be given special attention, as they represent the main part of human resources that can attain numerous achievements in the future, through education and skills training; accordingly, if children and adolescents are being neglected when developing policies and practical solutions, human capital will be wasted (Khariri-Hassan et al., 2016). The representatives of Iran in the United Nations and the International Labor Organization have signed conventions 138, 146, and 190 to abolish child labor. 
They aimed to gradually increase the minimum working age to a level commensurate with the full biopsychological development of children; however, Afghan migrant working children shape more than two-thirds of the country’s children, as a vulnerable group (Khodabakhshi-Koolaee et al., 2019). Immigrant working children encounter numerous social problems due to a lack of education and nonattendance at formal education courses (Sasmal & Guillen 2015). Compared to non-immigrant families, parental violence is much more prevalent in immigrant families. This issue is due to poor economic conditions and social pressures. Forced migration, which often occurs as a result of war and destruction, is always associated with adverse psychosocial consequences. To cope with living conditions, immigrants often have no choice except to employ ineffective training and defensive strategies, like aggression (Khodabakhshi-Koolaee et al., 2012)
According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), by the end of 2015, the number of refugees in the world for various reasons such as attacks, war, economic problems, and unemployment reached >52 million; an increase of 1400000 individuals, compared to 2014. Besides, 51% of all these migrants and homeless individuals are children aged <18 years, two-thirds of whom are from Afghanistan, Syria, and Somalia. Iran, with 979000 Afghan and Iraqi immigrants is the fourth country worldwide in terms of hosting war migrants (Khariri-Hassan et al., 2016). Forced or non-forced migration indicates leaving a place where individuals find it difficult to survive. Such populations often find aggression as the only manner to cope with living problems (Rasekhinejad & Khodabakhshi-Koolaee 2019). In addition to the human, moral, and social consequences, working children face many psychological problems in their relations with others. Fighting over limited economic resources and family pressures force them to always fight for survival in the host country (Moradi et al., 2016; Khodabakhshi-Koolaee, Akhalaghi-Yazdi & Hojati Sayah 2019).
Bullying is behavior more frequently observed among migrant working children. Bullying is a special form of domineering behavior. These negative acts occur when there is an imbalance between the victim and the attacker. Bullying behavior can be physical (e.g. hurting, pushing, kicking) verbal (e.g. naming, angering, threatening, slandering), or involve other behaviors. Studies revealed that 30% of students engage in bullying behaviors in some way, either as a bully, a victim, or both (Brown & Taylor 2008). A cause of bullying behaviors in children and adolescents is the lack of training on social and collective skills (Khodabakhshi-Koolaee, Falsafinejad & Zeididoost 2019).
To achieve their goals and satisfy their needs and desires, individuals must learn social behavior and skills, have proper communication with others, and adapt to society. This is only possible by consciously recognizing and internalizing the norms, values, customs, principles, and laws of society and acquiring social skills (Michelson et al., 2013). The lack of social skills prone children to multiple problems, results in non-compromise in interpersonal relationships, and behavioral problems and disorders. Besides, it negatively impacts the development of children’s personality and their adaptation to the environment (Segrin & Taylor 2007).
To teach social skills and empathy to migrant working children, implementing art therapy methods provides an opportunity for them to express their emotions in a new way; thus, they can generate a sense of confidence and trust in interpersonal relationships (Rasekhinejad & Khodabakhshi-Koolaee 2019). An art intervention method is mandala art therapy. This method was first introduced to the world of psychology by the Swiss psychiatrist, Carl Jung (Lorentzsen 2019). In 1978, Siegels requested college students to draw pictures in a square or circle (Figure 1). 
 

He observed that drawing images in circles has led to the psychological calm of the participants (Slegelis 1978). 
Subsequent researchers also examined the therapeutic effects of this method. For example, Ely et al. (2017) implemented the mandala art therapy method for 8 sessions in refugee men and women suffering from trauma; they found that mandala art therapy resulted in a high level of comfort and confidence among the participants (Ely et al., 2017). Duong et al. (2017) also used coloring mandalas to reduce students’ anxiety. They concluded that coloring mandalas as an art therapy method could significantly reduce students’ anxiety (Duong et al., 2017). Furthermore, Green et al. (2013) used mandalas in Jungian play therapy with adolescents diagnosed with Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). 
They stated that coloring mandala designs for ADHD adolescents with less verbal ability and less abstract thinking than their healthy peers could help alleviate these adolescents’ concerns. Moreover, they suggested that mandalas are a more appropriate method than other conventional psychological therapies (Green et al., 2013). In another study, researchers used coloring mandalas to reduce negative mood in adults. As a result, they indicated that drawing circles and coloring them helped to improve the research participants’ mood (Babouchkina & Robbins 2015).
The negative effects of bullying behaviors and the lack of social skills in migrant working children and their communication problems with the host community are of importance; thus, this study aimed at examining the effects of using coloring mandalas and Jungian art to reduce bullying and increase social skills in Afghan male working children.
2. Materials and Methods
This was a quasi-experimental study with a Pre-test-Post-test and a control group design. The research population included all 10-12 year-old Afghan immigrant boys in Tehran City, Iran, who were studying at Parto School for Working Children in the Education District 15 of Tehran Municipality, in 2019. Of the total 48 students, 30 boys who met the study inclusion criteria were selected using the convenience sampling technique. The study participants were then assigned to the control (n=15) and treatment (n=15) groups by drawing lots. The study inclusion criteria were as follows: Obtaining the maximum score on the Illinois Bully Scale (IBS) and the minimum score on the Social Skills Inventory (SSI), enrolling in Parto School for Working Children and having an age of 10-12 years. The research exclusion criteria were as follows simultaneous participation in other art therapy programs and absence from more than two art therapy sessions. 
The instruments used to collect the data were IBS: Student Version (Espelage & Holt 2001) and SSI (Inderbitzen & Foster 1992). 
IBS (Student Version): This scale was developed by Espelage and Holt (2001). The scale contains two subscales; a bullying measure that assesses the extent of the student’s involvement in bullying behavior (items 1-9) and the victimization subscale that measures the extent to which students are victimized by bullying behavior (items 10-16). 
The scale items are scored on a five-point Likert-type scale, ranging from one to 5. (1: Never true about you & 5: Always true about you). In this scale, those who score low on bullying will score high on pro-social behaviors and vice versa. Espelage and Holt (2001) used factor analysis and convergent and divergent validity to examine the validity of the scale. The authors applied Cronbach’s alpha coefficient to assess the reliability of the scale and the corresponding values for the bullying and victimization subscales were measures as 0.87 and 0.79, respectively (Espelage & Holt 2001). 
We translated the IBS into Persian. The Content Validity Ratio (CVR) of the scale’s translated version was 0.65 and its Content Validity Index (CVI) was >0.72. In the present study, the scale was re-validated using Cronbach’s alpha coefficient for the sample of Afghan migrant working children and the corresponding value was 0.76, reflecting the acceptable reliability of the whole scale. 
Teenage Social Skills Inventory (TSSI): This inventory was developed by Inderbitzen and Foster (1992). It contains 39 five-choice items. The statements in this scale assess positive and negative behaviors. Each statement is scored using 5 options; 0: Not at all true;1: Very little true; 2: A little true; 3: To some extent true; 4: Often true; and 5: Always true. Negative statements are scored reversely. Inderbitzen and Foster (1992) developed two subscales for measuring prosocial (20 items) and antisocial (19 items) behaviors. 
A score on this inventory higher than the average score (98) indicates better social skills and a score lower than the average suggests lower social skills. The reliability of the inventory was reported by Cronbach’s alpha coefficient as equal to 0.90 (Inderbitzen & Foster 1992). The reliability of the Persian version of the inventory was assessed by Amini (1999) in Tehran among students. The corresponding values for the positive and negative statements were reported as 0.71 and 0.68, respectively (Amini 1999). In this study, the reliability of the questionnaire was recalculated using Cronbach’s alpha coefficient; the corresponding values for the positive and negative sections were 0.78 and 0.68, respectively. 
This study was conducted in 2019 at Parto School after obtaining permission from the Islamic Azad University (Tehran North Branch). The Parto school is a private charity school for working children in Tehran. The parents of these children were unavailable due to various reasons, including illegal residence and deportation from Iran. Besides, some of the children were rented. Thus, the informed consent form was obtained from the school principal as the guardian of the children. The school principal also expressed his satisfaction with the possible psychological improvement effects of the intervention, i.e. a form of art therapy and does not harm children. 
Additionally, to obtain the consent of the children, the purpose of the study was explained in simple words; they were informed that there is no obligation to attend classes and that attendance in classes is voluntary. In agreement with the center, the required workbooks, crayons, and other tools were obtained by the researcher and presented to them.  
The mandala coloring sessions were held based on the content of mandala coloring practice books obtained for each research participant. The coloring program continued with a free design of circles and semicircles. Ten 45-minute weekly therapy sessions were held for two and a half months at Parto School, i.e. located in district 15 of Tehran municipality. The course instructor was an art teacher. The content of the program is presented in Table 1



Throughout the course, mandala art therapy focused on the active role of the therapist, assistant instructor, study participants, and creative discussions. The program was implemented in one group; therefore, the students could share their experiences and insights about themselves and friends, as well as trying new options. The research team prepared some educational pamphlets about physical health, personal hygiene, and nutrition for the control group. Furthermore, after the study course, 4 sessions of mandala coloring were held for the control group. 
 Finally, the obtained data were analyzed using Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) in SPSS. The flow diagram of the study process is shown in Figure 2
 

3. Results 
The experimental and control group subjects were matched in age, economic status, and educational level. The mean age of the subjects was 11.50 years. The normality assumption of the data was assessed using the Shapiro-Wilkes test. Moreover, after establishing the normality assumption, ANCOVA was used to analyze the collected data.
As per Tables 2 and 3, the mean Post-test scores of bullying and social behaviors of the subjects in the treatment group increased, compared to that of the controls.  





As indicated by the ANCOVA results in Tables 4, the F-value for the effectiveness of group art training was statistically significant in all tests (P<0.001). 



Besides, the F-value (F=24.196, F=20.12, & F=19.01) suggested that the intervention was effective in bullying, aggression, and victimization, respectively. In addition, the F-value (F=42.413 & F=32.02) indicated that the intervention was effective on prosocial and antisocial behaviors, respectively; while such effect was not observed in the control group. 
4. Discussion 
The current research findings suggested that coloring mandala designs were effective in reducing bullying behavior and increasing the social skills of the explored Afghan migrant working children. Similarly, the effect of coloring mandala designs was examined on improving mood, state anxiety, and body mindfulness; it was found that these designs could positively motivate participants and reduce their anxiety. It was also concluded that unstructured mandala designs were more useful than structured designs for expressing emotions (Campenni & Hartman  2020). 
Besides, Henderson et al. (2007) conducted an experimental study on mandala designs to reduce patients’ Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) symptoms. They concluded that relative to those in the control condition, individuals assigned to the experimental mandala-creation group reported greater decreases in traumatic symptoms. Such conditions included PTSD symptoms, depressive symptoms, anxiety, spiritual meaning, and the frequency of physical symptoms and illness experiences. They concluded that mandala designs may be very useful for individuals reluctant or unable to write about their experiences (Henderson et al., 2007).
Concerning the application of mandala designs and coloring them, Cook et al. recommended that mandala art therapy be used as a strategy by elementary school counselors to help students succeed in school. These designs provide an opportunity for students to work in a group to create art (Cook et al., 2016). Besides, Bi and Liu argued that drawing mandala designs is effective in reducing the social anxiety of university students and allows     
them to work together (Bi & Liu 2019). Gençdoğan et al. examined the effect of coloring mandala designs on reducing test anxiety in students; they found that coloring mandalas could significantly reduce the level of anxiety in them (Gençdoğan et al., 2018).
Mandala designs could assist individuals with insufficient verbal ability or language problems in the host community to communicate with others and improve their social skills. These designs and their coloring are used for most individuals with anxiety, inattention, and PTSD. Accordingly, Kim et al. employed mandala art therapy (adults’ version) to increase subjective wellbeing, resilience, and hope in patients admitted to the psychiatric ward. They concluded that these schemes help to increase hope in hospitalized mentally-ill patients (Kim et al., 2018).
Stickley et al. applied creative writing for refugees and individuals seeking asylum in the UK. They found that creative writing may be effective in enabling such populations to cope with past experiences and find ways of adjustment for the future (Stickley et al., 2019). Mandala designs that were first introduced to the world of psychology and art by Carl Jung (2017) could help to relieve stress arising from life problems and create and promote mental health. 
One of the limitations of the present study was restricting the research sample to Afghan migrant working children who were studying at Parto School in Tehran. Moreover, the necessary data were collected through self-report questionnaires.
5. Conclusion
The present study results revealed that coloring mandala designs reduced bullying behaviors and increased social skills in Afghan migrant working children. Mandala designs help to teach creativity, increase social behaviors, and reduce anxiety and aggression in children and adolescents. Facilitated by training teachers and counselors in schools and children’s centers, mandala designs can be used to reduce aggression and bullying behaviors in these children.
Ethical Considerations
Compliance with ethical guidelines
The current study was approved by the Research Ethics Committee of Islamic Azad University, Tehran North Branch (Code: 15721602972020). The parents of the working children unavailable due to various reasons, including illegal residence and deportation from Iran. Moreover, some of the children were rented; thus, informed consent was obtained from the school principal as the guardian of the children. To obtain the consent of the children, the purpose of the study was explained in simple words to them and they were informed that attendance in therapy sessions is voluntary.
Funding
The present paper was extracted from MSc. thesis of the Second author, Department of Psychology, Faculty of Humanities, North Tehran Branch, Islamic Azad University.
Authors' contributions
All authors contributed in preparing this article.
Conflict of interest
The authors declared no conflicts of interest.
Acknowledgments
The authors would like to appreciate the managers and staff of the Parto School and Center in Tehran as well as all participants in this study. 


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Type of Study: Research | Subject: General
Received: 2020/04/10 | Accepted: 2020/06/13 | Published: 2020/08/1

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