Abstract

Depression is a serious mental disorder affecting a large percentage of female adolescents in contemporary society, which, due to a combination of psychiatric, environmental, social, and developmental factors, presents a remarkable challenge to the mental health professional. This paper evaluated the effectiveness of a group-based, combined art and drama therapy approach in treating three depressed adolescents. The study adopted a mixed methods approach, combining a quantitative and qualitative research methodology. A quantitative portion, in the form of a quasi-experimental, pre-post research design, was utilized in order to objectively demonstrate the effectiveness of the intervention with respect to the participants' levels of depression, anxiety, suicidality, self-esteem, conduct disorder, and global level of functioning. The qualitative portion provided some greater detail into the quantitative findings by means of descriptive case studies. Results of most quantitative measures were inconclusive, although all participants experienced an increase in self-esteem. However, the qualitative evidence presented some rationale for the inconclusive evidence, and demonstrated some additional improvements in levels of depression, self-awareness, and emotional expression. Due to the significant limitations of the study, it was concluded that the study holds validity as a pilot study, but that further research is necessary to empirically demonstrate the effectiveness of this intervention.