Empirical studies in the creative arts therapies (CATs; i.e., art therapy, dance/movement therapy, drama therapy, music therapy, psychodrama, and poetry/bibliotherapy) have grown rapidly in the last 10 years, documenting their positive impact on a wide range of psychological and physiological outcomes (e.g., stress, trauma, depression, anxiety, and pain). However, it remains unclearhowandwhythe CATs have positive effects, and which therapeutic factors account for these changes. Research that specifically focuses on the therapeutic factors and/or mechanisms of change in CATs is only beginning to emerge. To gain more insight into how and why the CATs influence outcomes, we conducted a scoping review (N_studies= 67) to pinpoint therapeutic factors specific to each CATs discipline, joint factors of CATs, and more generic common factors across all psychotherapy approaches. This review therefore provides an overview of empirical CATs studies dealing with therapeutic factors and/or mechanisms of change, and a detailed analysis of these therapeutic factors which are grouped into domains. A framework of 19 domains of CATs therapeutic factors is proposed, of which the three domains are composed solely of factors unique to the CATs: “embodiment,” “concretization,” and “symbolism and metaphors.” The terminology used in change process research is clarified, and the implications for future research, clinical practice, and CATs education are discussed.

Psychodrama is an experiential psychotherapy in which guided role-play is used to gain insights and work on personal and interpersonal problems and possible solutions. Despite the wealth of literature describing clinical work, psychodrama intervention research is relatively scarce compared to other psychotherapies and psychological interventions. For this reason we implemented the integrative approach to systematic review that authorizes the combination of publications with diverse methodologies and all types of participants, interventions, comparisons, and outcomes. Our aim was to produce a comprehensive summary of psychodrama intervention research in the last decade that critically evaluates methodological issues to inform future studies. We searched four major electronic databases (PsycINFO, PubMEd, Scopus by Elsevier, and Web of Science) for peer-reviewed articles on psychodrama interventions published in English between 1 January 2007 and 31 December 2017. The quality of qualitative and mixed methods studies was assessed on the basis of pre-established guidelines, and the risk of bias was assessed for all quantitative randomized control studies, consistent with the PRISMA protocol. The database search and a hand search resulted in 31 psychodrama intervention publications. Overall, these studies examined the effects of psychodrama on more than 20 different outcomes and most studies had adult clients. The next largest group was adolescents, whereas only two studies involved children. Thus psychodrama intervention research in the last decade suggests there are promising results in all methodologies, and highlights the need to enhance methodological as well as reporting quality and to theorize and examine modality-specific mechanisms that lead to therapeutic change. Recommendations to improve methodology, transparency, and specificity in reporting future psychodrama and other psychotherapy research are discussed.

This article presents the framework and explores the measurement, correlates, and outcomes of creative adaptability (CA), proposed here as the cognitive–behavioral-emotional ability to respond creatively and adaptively to stressful situations. Data collection was in April 2020, during the peak of the outbreak of the Coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19) in Israel. In Study 1, a sample of 310 adults completed the newly developed CA scale, as well as spontaneity, openness to experience, creative self-efficacy, and well-being measurements. The results of exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses corroborated the 9-item CA scale’s theorized underlying construct. The scale’s validity and reliability were also supported. Exploratory analyses suggested that the association between CA and well-being was mediated by creative self-efficacy and that CA may buffer the impact of individuals’ concern about Coronavirus on their well-being. In Study 2, short-term longitudinal data based on a sample of 71 students suggested that CA may predict lower psychological stress over time. Support for the CA scale’s internal consistency reliability was obtained and its test–retest reliability was established. Overall, the results shed light on this new construct as a potential protective factor. Implications for theory, research, and practice are discussed.

Although studies have shown that self-control skills are positively linked to both personal and interpersonal outcomes in adolescent students, studies on the putative mechanisms underlying this relationship are scarce. Drawing on Self-Determination Theory and previous studies, we theorized that the association between students' self-control skills and their subjective well-being in school may be mediated by students' perceived satisfaction of their basic psychological needs for competence, relatedness, and autonomy. The sample consisted of 1576 Israeli adolescent students (54% girls) in grades 10-12 (mean age 16) enrolled in 20 schools. A mediation model was tested with structural equation modelling and a robust bootstrap method for testing indirect effects, controlling for school-level variance. The findings supported the hypothesized model and a post-hoc multi-group comparison analysis yielded gender invariance in the model. The findings suggest that both girls and boys with high self-control skills may perceive themselves as having greater needs satisfaction in school and consequently higher school-related subjective well-being. Implications for policy and practice are discussed.

Editorial: The State of the Art in Creative Arts Therapies