Objective To explore the effect of group painting art therapy on social function rehabili-tation and quality of life of chronic schizophrenia patients. Methods Totally 104 inpatients with schizophre-nia were assigned to study group with 53 cases and control group with 51 cases by random number table method. Patients in study group received group painting art therapy intervention,medication and other reha-bilitation activities. While the patients in control group were only given medication and other rehabilitation activities. All patients in both groups received positive and negative symptoms scale(PANSS),schizophrenia quality of life scale(SQLS) and scale of social-skills for psychiatric inpatients(SSPI) before and after the in-tervention. The results were analyzed by independent sample t test. Results Before treatment,there were no significant differences of the total scores and the dimensional subscores of PANSS,SQLS and SSPI between the study group and control group( all P>0. 05). Compared with control group,the difference score between pre-test and post-test of PANSS ((12. 26±6. 87) vs (5. 11±3. 11),t=13. 11,P<0. 01) and negative symp-tom ((-7. 96±5. 44) vs (-2. 82±3. 47),t=-12. 30,P<0. 01),score of SQLS ((27. 45±12. 22) vs (2. 41 ±10. 68),t=-11. 11,P<0. 01) and score of SSPI((-20. 40±8. 10) vs (-0. 94±8. 01),t=12. 31,P<0. 01) in study group changed statistically(all P<0. 01). Conclusion These results suggest that group painting art therapy intervention can improve the negative symptoms,the quality of life and the recovery of social function in patients with chronic schizophrenia.