The effectiveness of person-centered expressive art therapy on college students in reducing depression, anxiety and stress

Within the context of growing challenges with mental health among college students worldwide, mental health service centres in Chinese colleges mostly rely on standardised Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) based on verbal communication. However, there is a lack of innovation in non-verbal intervention approaches, such as Person-Centred Expressive Art Therapy (PCEAT). This study applied a Randomised Controlled Trial (RCT) design to evaluate the effectiveness of PCEAT in reducing depression, anxiety and stress among Chinese college students. 100 Chinese college students who were experiencing depression, anxiety or stress were recruited for the study. The participants were stratified and randomly assigned to either the PCEAT experimental group (n = 50) or the CBT control group (n = 50). The Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale-21 (DASS-21) was used to measure the level of mental health at pre-intervention, mid-intervention and post-intervention. Data analyses were conducted using SPSS 26.0. The results demonstrated significantly greater reductions in levels of depression, anxiety and stress in the PCEAT group compared to the CBT group after the intervention. The findings of this study supported the effectiveness of PCEAT as a non-verbal approach to improve mental health among Chinese college students, providing an alternative to conventional verbal-centric interventions. From a theoretical perspective, this study strengthens the foundation of PCEAT theory with empirical evidence through a quantitative methodology and a rigorous experimental design. From a practical perspective, the PCEAT-based intervention protocol has the potential to enhance the quality of services at Mental Health Centres in Chinese colleges and to expand the diversity of psychological intervention models that can be applied in the context of higher education.