Creative arts intervention for a firstborn child during the transition to siblinghood: a Chinese case study

ABSTRACT

The fertility policy liberalization in China has meant that many firstborn children are stressed by a newborn sibling’s arrival. This case study explores creative arts intervention as an innovative stress management approach to alleviate a Chinese girl's maladaptive reactions during her transition to siblinghood. A weekly 17-session tailored creative arts program used diverse art forms for self-exploration, emotion regulation, and family dynamics reconstruction in stages. The study employed an AB single-case design and utilized a mixed-methods approach for data collection. The results demonstrated that the child’s maladjustment appeared closely tied to the cultural context of Chinese families. Creative arts intervention effectively improved the child’s emotion regulation, family involvement, and social confidence as well as sibling warmth and managing jealousy. This case offers culturally situated insights to guide future child-centred, arts-based transition support research in Chinese families undergoing rapid structural shifts.

KEYWORDS:

• Transition to siblinghood
• firstborn child
• psychological adaptation
• sibling relationship
• creative arts intervention

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the participant, participant’s mother and teacher who participated in the study. We also thank to Dr. Yiyang Huang at Nanjing Children's Hospital for her assistance for this study. The data was collected and the first draft of the manuscript was written by Shiqi Fang, all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript and approved the final manuscript. We extend our gratitude to Professor Anita Sinner at the University of British Columbia for her valuable input and guidance in the preparation of this manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Major Projects of Philosophy and Social Science in China Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions (2019SJZDA083).

Notes on contributors

Shiqi Fang

Shiqi Fang is a Ph.D. candidate at the School of Educational Science, Nanjing Normal University. Her research interests focus on children's art education and children's art psychology.

Xia Bian

Xia Bian is a professor at the School of Educational Science, Nanjing Normal University, and currently serves as the dean of Ginling College at Nanjing Normal University. Her research interest focuses on children's art education.

Yuejia Chen

Yuejia Chen is a Ph.D. candidate at the School of Educational Science, Nanjing Normal University. Her research interest focuses on early childhood education.