Expressive Textile Arts and Fashion-based Intervention for Youth with Emotional Distress: A Pilot Study
Recent years have seen increased interest in early intervention in and prevention of mental health difficulties during adolescence. In this pilot study, a structured expressive textile art and fashion based (ETAFB) intervention was conducted to evaluate the beneficial effects on personal wellbeing and social interaction of youth with emotional distress. A one-group pretest-posttest pilot study was conducted among 18 youth with emotional distress. All the participants attended four sessions of ETAFB intervention. All the participants were subjected to a preintervention test and a 4-week postintervention test using the Personal Wellbeing Index – School Children (PWI-SC), 12-item General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12), and Social Interaction Anxiety Scale (SIAS). The study findings revealed that the ETAFB intervention was associated with significant improvements in some of the measurements. This information provides the groundwork for a further study to investigate the effect of the ETAFB intervention on the relationship between youth well-being and facilitators.
