Browsing by Author "Ahmed, Iman Osman Mukhtar"

Syrian Adolescent Refugees (SARs), who have fled ‘war-torn’ Syria, arrived in Malaysia where they have faced many challenges affecting them physically and psychologically. This study aims to explore the effectiveness of using SARs’ drawings and interviews to better understand their future orientation and hope within the context of the bio-ecological system. It also aims to address the nature of the adolescents and their reciprocal interaction relationships within their bio-ecological context and their effect on the adolescents’ future orientation, hope, adjustment and coping within the new environment. The bio-ecological theory serves as the theoretical and conceptual framework of the study. A case-study qualitative research approach was utilized using the drawing and interviews as instruments to collect the data from eleven (11) SARs in Malaysia who were under the authority of UNHCR. The thematic content analysis was utilized to analyse the collected data. The findings revealed that the SARs did not have negative expectations about their future because they had goals and plans for the future. SARs faced several challenges that had a negative impact on their life and their ability to achieve their future goals, but they still have remained determined to accomplish their goals. The support of the parents, peers, significant others, and the community played a highly significant role in helping and encouraging SARs to hold on to their future plans, continue to have hope, cope with the war trauma and adjust to the new society. Several traumatic symptoms were projected in the participants’ Peace and War drawings. The SARs used many coping strategies to come to terms with the new environment such as improving their personal traits, spirituality and religiosity and mixing with local community and communicating with international friends and their families through social media. The study also supports the use of the bio-ecological theory as a framework to study the situations of refugees from different perspectives. ‘Draw Your Self Now’ and ‘Draw Your Self in the Future’ assessment tools can be utilized as art therapy which provide precious information about adolescents’ feelings pertaining their present and future selves. This study is significant in filling the existing research gap as it emphasizes on the importance of future and hope. It also serves as a reference for intervention programs, educators and psychologists.

Children communicate with their world by creating meaning through their drawings. These drawings received considerable research attention of many scholars. Surprisingly, only few researchers used Kinetic School Drawings (KSD) technique to study school environment and its impact on children. Therefore, the focus of this study is to examine children’s perception towards their school environment. The relationship between their school setting, mental health, and academic achievement. An embedded mixed methods design involving qualitative and quantitative methods was utilized in this study. The study involved 36 international school’s children aged seven years. Data was collected through one drawing session. The drawings were first analyzed qualitatively using Kinetic School Drawings (KSD) Scoring and Rating System (SRS) by Andrews and Jenzen (1988), and further analyzed quantitatively. The results of the study supported the accrued knowledge on self-expression of children’s feelings through drawings. It revealed a significant correlation between children’s perception toward their school environment and mental health. It also revealed an insignificant correlation between children’s perception toward their school setting and academic achievement. The results also showed that children that are lowachievers show less interest in academic activities by portraying themselves outside the school environment rather than inside. Lastly, the findings indicated that adjustment problems of multicultural students could be identified through drawings. This further confirmed that KSD is a helpful tool that can be used by school psychologist/counsellor and educators in diagnosing children’s problems in both practical and academic aspects, as well as in developing hypotheses for further studies. Although, the findings further confirmed that KSD could be more valuable if combined with Kinetic Family Drawing (KFD) when training is provided to the users.