Relationship Aspects of Mothers and Their Adolescents with Intellectual Disability as Expressed through the Joint Painting Procedure.

The quality of the interaction between mothers and their children with an Intellectual Disability (ID) plays a crucial role in their development and in particular during adolescence. This qualitative study was designed to provide a better understanding of aspects of the relationships between mothers and their adolescents with ID through an art-based tool, the Joint Painting Procedure. The qualitative analysis of six dyads of mothers and adolescents with severe, moderate and mild ID was based on the principles of narrative and phenomenological inquiry. The findings yielded three key themes that emerged from the relational dynamics during the JPP: (1) from dependency to autonomy, (2) the joint painting as a way to foster verbal communication, and (3) playfulness and enjoyment. The JPP appeared to serve as a meaningful art-based assessment of the implicit and explicit aspects of the relationships which evolved during the interaction. The findings underscore the potential of the JPP as a non-verbal, art-based tool that allows researchers and clinicians to learn more about the dynamics of relationships between mothers and their adolescents with ID. It also enables a context where the expression of relational issues can be communicated and even transformed.

Friends' Closeness and Intimacy From Adolescence to Adulthood: Art Captures Implicit Relational Representations in Joint Drawing: A Longitudinal Study.

This longitudinal study, employing a mixed-methods explanatory design, explored the power of art to express aspects of one's inner world using the joint drawing technique, which allows for observation and treatment of implicit representations of relationships. At Time 1 (T1, 1977-1978), 200 adolescents created a joint drawing with either a good friend or with a classmate who was not a friend and filled out the Intimate Friendship Scale (IFS) in relation to their best friend. In 2014 (T2), 36 women and 21 men from the original cohort completed the IFS with regard to a good friend and with regard to their spouse. The drawings were analyzed qualitatively to define pictorial phenomena that may be indicative of closeness. The analysis was conducted in accordance with the phenomenological approach to art therapy and with the principles of thematic analysis. Fourteen pictorial phenomena were defined, and a scale was constructed to quantitatively evaluate the extent to which each phenomenon was present in the joint drawing. This yielded a closeness score for each drawing. Quantitatively, no correlations were found between intimacy as measured by IFS at T1 and at T2. In contrast, there was a correlation between the degree of closeness in the joint drawing at T1, and the IFS score with the partner in T2, suggesting continuity over the 36-year time span. This correlation was likewise found when examined separately among participants who drew with a friend. The multivariate ANOVA (MANOVA) results showed a marginally significant effect for the interaction between closeness in drawing and drawing with a friend/non-friend - on IFS. An ANOVA showed that the IFS regarding the participant's best friend and their romantic partner at T2 was higher when the closeness in the drawing at T1 was higher. There was also a significant interaction between closeness in the drawings and the participant's IFS score regarding their best friend at T1. The differences between the joint drawing with the close friend and the non-friend are discussed. These findings, from a span of over 36 years, thus contribute to the validity of the IFS and the joint drawing technique when assessing closeness and intimacy.

Creating Art Together as a Transformative Process in Parent-Child Relations: The Therapeutic Aspects of the Joint Painting Procedure.

The relationships between parents and children contain implicit aspects, which are non-conscious and non-verbal, in addition to explicit ones. Both explicit and implicit aspects are central to understanding the dyadic dynamics and are implicated in psychotherapy processes and outcomes. Visual symbolization has a unique value as a channel of expression that can capture the implicit characteristics of relationships. Creating art together goes even further because it allows the presence of implicit representations of the relations in vivo. These representations can then be transformed through the joint process of creation, which has a unique potential to unleash reflective capacities when it is experienced in a playful and safe context. This paper presents a qualitative study that is part of larger mixed-methods research with 87 mother-child dyads (with children 9 to 12 years old). Dyads were administered the Joint Painting Procedure (JPP), which includes dyadic painting by the parent and child on the same paper and is used for evaluation and treatment in the field of parent-child therapy and art therapy. The study's objectives were to uncover and better understand the unique therapeutic aspects that such method allows and its potential to impact parent-child relationships. The findings of the qualitative study indicated that the JPP enabled several dynamic processes such as pleasure and fun, bi-directionality, mutual regulation, mentalization, and mutual recognition, which together created a salient positive transformation in the relationship. Through the JPP, a new transformative aspect of relations emerges and enables new and different modes of communication and interactions in about half of the dyads and a lesser and partial positive transformation in about a third of them.