Coloring Mandala as Jungian Art to Reduce Bullying and Increase Social Skills in Afghan Boys Working Children

Background: Bullying and lack of social skills are important factors for future risk-related problems such as delinquency and feelings of rejection in children. The present study was conducted to assess the effectiveness of Coloring Mandala as Jungian art to reduce bullying and increase social skills in Afghan boys working children. Methods: It was a quasi-experimental study with pretest and posttest design. The research population included all 10 to 12-year-old Afghan immigrant boys in Tehran who were studying in Parto School for Working Children in 2019. The research sample consisted of 30 children who have gotten Maximum scores   on Illinois Bully Scale and Minimum scores on the Teenage Social Skills Inventory (TSSI). The participants were selected using    convenient sampling and were   assigned into two control and treatment groups by drawing lots. The participants in the treatment group attended ten 45-minute sessions on coloring mandalas and Jungian art. The instruments used in this study to collect the data were Illinois Bully Scale: Student Version (Espelage & Holt, 2001) and Teenage Social Skills Inventory (TSSI) (Inderbitzen & Foster, 1992). The collected data were analyzed using the one-way analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) in SPSS software (version 22). Results: The results showed that the bullying scores for the participants in the treatment group decreased significantly on the posttest compared to the pretest (F = 24.29, P = 0.001) while their social skills scores increased significantly on the posttest in comparison with the pretest (F = 42.41, P = 0.001). However, no significant differences were found in bullying and social skills scores of the participants in the control group on the pretest and posttest.    Conclusion: Mandala coloring art was effective in reducing bullying behaviors and increasing the social skills of Afghan migrant working children. Therefore, this artistic method can be used as a suitable option for psychological therapies, teaching social skills, and creating participation and empathy in children in educational centers and schools for child labor.