EDUCATIONAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL INTERVENTIONS USING MULTIMODAL ART THERAPY FOR ADOLESCENTS WITH EMOTIONAL DISORDERS: A BIBLIOMETRIC REVIEW

Abstract

This bibliometric review investigates the landscape of scientific research on educational and psychological interventions using multimodal art therapy for adolescents with emotional disorders. Amid a global rise in youth mental health challenges such as anxiety, depression, and affective dysregulation there is increasing interest in holistic, creative, and developmentally appropriate therapeutic approaches. Multimodal art therapy, which integrates visual arts, music, drama, movement, and writing, has gained traction as an accessible and engaging intervention across clinical and educational settings. However, the field lacks a systematic bibliometric synthesis that maps its scientific growth, knowledge structures, and thematic trends. This study analyzes 2000–2024 publications indexed in Scopus using bibliometric methods including co-authorship mapping, citation analysis, and keyword co-occurrence clustering, visualized via VOSviewer. The results highlight rising publication activity, with the United States, United Kingdom, and China emerging as leading contributors. The most cited works focus on school-based interventions, trauma-informed practices, and expressive arts in therapeutic education. Five thematic clusters were identified: (1) clinical and developmental interventions; (2) creative modality integration; (3) symptomatology and mental health treatment; (4) trauma-informed frameworks; and (5) institutional psychiatric art therapy. These findings reveal the interdisciplinary and evolving nature of MAT research and point to the need for cross-cultural, outcome-based, and methodologically rigorous studies. This review contributes to knowledge consolidation in the field and provides a foundation for future research and practice in adolescent mental health care.