Journal Article Reflection

Journal Article Title: "Art-Based Occupation Group Reduces Parent Anxiety in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit: A Mixed-Methods Study"

This article described a group of parents with children in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) that participated in an art-based occupation group doing scrapbooking.  The aim of the study was to see if stress (i.e. anxiety) was reduced after participation in this group art-based occupation.  The study was a mixed-methods study and data was collected in two ways.  First, data was collected via an assessment to measure the anxiety of the parents before and after the session.  Second, an interview was performed to assess the parent's experience of the group.  As a result, this study found that anxiety did decrease after participation in the art-based group session.  During the interviews, several themes emerged that were common among the parents.  The main themes were as follows: distraction, calming and relaxing, fun and enjoyable, looking to the future, and time to share with other and reducing isolation.

I enjoyed that this article was a mixed methods study.  I liked that the study not only quantitatively measured anxiety but also evaluated the experience of the subjects within the group.  Within this article, it seemed that doing this activity in a group setting was beneficial because it allowed the parents to step away from their current situations and be with others that are in similar situations.  Scrapbooking gave the parents a medium to express themselves and to describe their child and NICU experiences.  Before my Groups course, I would have thought of the activity (scrapbooking) as the most important part of the intervention for these parents, but it seems, based on my experience in Groups class and the information in this article, that the group itself is just as essential.  The group session provides a meeting place to share experiences and to be with others in similar situations.  As stated in this article, isolation was addressed through the group process, a theme that would have never emerged in an individual scrapbooking session.  I love the power of groups that I have seen in my Groups course and in this article.  Having this understanding of the benefits of groups, I hope to incorporate more groups into my future occupational therapy practice.  I truly believe that there are underestimated occupational results that can only be achieved using the group process.


Mouradian, L. E., DeGrace, B. W., & Thompson, D. M. (2013). Art-based occupation group reduces parent anxiety in the NICU: A mixed-methods study. American Journal of Occupational Therapy, 67, 692–700. doi: 10.5014/ajot.2013.007682