The Human Figure Drawing with Donor and Nondonor Siblings of Pediatric Bone Marrow Transplant Patients

Although bone marrow transplantation (BMT) has become standard therapy for many life-threatening childhood disorders, there is little research on the psychological impact of BMT on family members. We recently found in a cohort of donor and nondonor siblings that donors had significantly more anxiety...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:	Art therapy Vol. 20; no. 2; pp. 83 - 91
Main Authors:	Packman, Wendy L., Beck, Vanessa L., VanZutphen, Kelly H., Long, Janet K., Spengler, Gisele
Format:	Journal Article
Language:	English
Published:	Routledge 01-03-2003
Subjects:	Anger Anxiety Art Therapy Children Depression (Psychology) Emotional Distress Freehand Drawing Human Figure Drawing Test Psychological Patterns Self Esteem Siblings Tissue Donors
Online Access:	Get full text
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Summary:	Although bone marrow transplantation (BMT) has become standard therapy for many life-threatening childhood disorders, there is little research on the psychological impact of BMT on family members. We recently found in a cohort of donor and nondonor siblings that donors had significantly more anxiety, lower self-esteem, and more adaptive skills than nondonors; nondonors showed significantly more school problems. In our investigation, we used the Human Figure Drawing (HFD) (Koppitz, 1968) to measure the siblings' emotional distress toward BMT. In this paper, we report the quantitative and qualitative findings from the HFDs (n = 42, ages 6 to 18 years) including data from case vignettes of four siblings. Among the siblings, feelings of isolation, anger, depression, anxiety, and low self-esteem emerged as major themes. These findings indicate the importance of attending to siblings' needs throughout the transplantation process. Siblings should be seen as an integral part of the family system and as important participants in the process.
Bibliography:	ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23
ISSN:	0742-1656 2159-9394
DOI:	10.1080/07421656.2003.10129395