Table 2.
Characteristics of studies included in meta-analysis.
| Study year | Country | Design | N | Age (years) | Intervention type | Duration (weeks) | Control | EI outcome measure | Risk of bias |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Epp, 2008 | USA | Quasi | 25 | 6–12 | Multimodal | 10 | TAU | Social skills rating | Moderate |
| Katagiri, 2009 | Japan | Quasi | 12 | 8–15 | Multimodal | 8 | NCC/CC | Emotion understanding | Moderate |
| Moghaddam et al., 2016 | Iran | Quasi | 20 | 5–12 | Family art therapy | 15 | WL | GARS-2 | Moderate |
| Jalambadani, 2020 | Iran | Quasi | 30 | 4–10 | Drawing | 8 | WL | SRS | Moderate |
| Liu et al., 2021 | China | RCT | 48 | 3–6 | Parent–child art | 12 | TAU | ATEC | Low |
| Gómez-Carlier and Powell, 2022 | UAE | Non-randomized controlled (pilot) | 8 | 4–10 | Online art therapy | 8 | WL | ERC | Serious |
| Schweizer et al., 2022 | Netherlands | Single-arm pre-post | 12 | 6–12 | IOS Art therapy | 15 | None (single-arm) | OAT | Serious |
| Huili et al., 2023 | China | RCT | 26 | 4–10 | Somatosensory game | 6 | Picture Book | Multiple | Low |
| An, 2026 | China | Quasi | 40 | 3–6 | Drawing | 24 | NI | SRS | Moderate |
| Hassan et al., 2025 | Malaysia | Single-arm pre-post | 18 | 5–12 | ART’UISM program | 8 | None (single-arm) | Multiple | Serious |
| Li et al., 2025 | China | Quasi | 60 (20 ASD, 40 TD) | 6–12 | Drawing | 9 | TD | fNIRS/SPD | Moderate |
| Lin et al., 2025 | China | RCT | 68 | 3–8 | WeChat PCCAT | 12 | TAU | CPRS/PWI | Low |
| Yao et al., 2026 | China | Quasi | 131 | 3–8 | Drawing | 8 | TAU | mYPAS | Moderate |
| Zhang et al., 2026 | China | Quasi | 23 | 4–7 | Mandala drawing | 4 | TAU | ATEC | Serious |
RCT = randomized controlled trial; Quasi = quasi-experimental design; TAU = treatment as usual; WL = waitlist control; NI = no intervention; TD = typically developing children comparison; NCC = no contact control; CC = contact control; Pre-post = pre-post design without separate control group; GARS-2 = Gilliam Autism Rating Scale-2; ERC = Emotion Regulation Checklist; OAT = Observation of a child with Autism in Art Therapy; SRS = Social Responsiveness Scale; SPD = Self-Portrait Drawing; ATEC = Autism Treatment Evaluation Checklist; CPRS = Child–Parent Relationship Scale; PWI = Psychological Well-being Index; mYPAS = modified Yale Preoperative Anxiety Scale; IOS = Images of Self; PCCAT = Parent–Child Creative Art Therapy. Risk of bias assessed using RoB 2.0 for RCTs and ROBINS-I for quasi-experimental studies. Design categories in this table follow the classification used in Section 3.1 and Supplementary Table S4: three RCTs, nine non-randomized or quasi-experimental controlled studies, and two single-arm pre-post designs.