The Arts and Happiness
Cornelia Elbrecht AThR, SEP, ANZACATA, IEATA
While I was still an Ugly Duckling, secretly reading novels by torchlight underneath my bedcovers, I discovered a world of likeminded Swans, where my spirit belonged. My wild emotions resonated with the music I listened to throughout my teens. I know I am preaching to the converted with this blog, however research always adds another level of credibility to something we seem to know but have no evidence for.
Recently I stumbled on a collection of studies by Dr Jess Bone, a Research Fellow in Statistics/Epidemiology in the Department of Behavioural Science and Health (UCL) and a member of the World Health Organisation Collaborating Centre on Arts and Health. Bone has conducted extensive research with colleagues on the arts and well-being.
These studies include all the arts and not necessarily arts as therapy.
Engagement with the arts can have an impressive impact on a whole range of conditions. Various studies involved about 50,000 participants and five out of six confirmed that the engagement with the arts did lower their depression. (Elsden, Roe 2021)
Korean researchers (Lee, Heo 2021) researched if the arts made you “happy”. They found for instance that lower socioeconomic populations enjoyed more of the performing arts and movies, mostly because they are more accessible and affordable, while wealthier audience members saw happiness benefits from visual arts experiences.
Other research shows that active and passive participation in dance, drama, music - and the fine arts - can have a positive effect on life satisfaction, give a sense of purpose, help dealing with affect, reduce the sense of loneliness, enhance social support and improve self-esteem. The arts made it easier to deal with depression, chronic pain, cognitive and physical decline, dementia, death and many other health behaviours. (Bone 2023)
A report focused on music therapy in US schools indicates that engagement in the arts has significantly positive effects on physical symptoms, psychological health, and social relationships. The researchers found that arts and cultural engagement could reduce the use of alcohol and drugs, but not marihuana, amongst teenagers in the USA. (Flyharty, Bu, Bone, Fancourt, Paul, 2022)
In another huge study by the same group of researchers (Flyharty, Bu, Bone, Fancourt, Paul, 2022) involving 8500 parents and nearly 300 schools, the findings were that adolescents who participated in extracurricular arts programs tended to fare better than those who did not, and the more the better. However, that did not apply for in-school arts offerings!!
The authors concluded that the arts could be an effective risk reduction strategy when they looked at the results. They primarily helped children with emotion regulation.
Children who in fifth grade were involved in extracurricular arts programs such as dance, music, drama or the fine arts all had improved emotional states, fewer behavioural problems, as well as less hyperactivity, inattention and difficulty in peer relationships by the time they were in eighths grade. They were less likely to cut class, engage in physical confrontations, steal, vandalize, bully or disrupt lessons.
When looking at artists themselves, another study (Bille, Fjællegaard, Frey, Steiner, 2013) found that although artists tend to be underemployed, underpaid and depressed, they exhibit higher job satisfaction on average than non-artists “mainly due to more autonomy.”
The arts are frequently dismissed as escapism, or insignificant entertainment, while the sports for instance are prime time newsworthy. However, all these studies show with impressive clarity that reading novels, writing poetry, playing or listening to music, painting, drawing, sculpting, singing, dancing and acting can all improve our happiness.
The arts have been an essential part in the world’s cultures for thousands of years. They have always had their place in rituals, worship and social connection. We need them as soul food to nourish our spirit. We need them to make our hearts sing and to let our bodies dance the rhythm of life. Without the colours and poetry, without the music of the soul, life becomes grey and dissociated.
The sports are predominantly competitive, while the arts aim to connect us. Be it a novel or a pop song, the artists who create them aim to reach out to find resonance with others who go through similar experiences. Dancers and actors embody our emotions allowing us to cry and laugh together. When we create in a therapy session, we externalize our inner life and in the process encounter and realize ourselves. The arts help us to communicate across language and cultural barriers. They give voice to our emotions; they add colour and movement to our being - and give life meaning.
References
Bone, Jessica https://www.ucl.ac.uk/mental-health/people/jessica-bone
Lee, H., Heo, S. Arts and Cultural Activities and Happiness: Evidence from Korea. Applied Research Quality Life 16, 1637–1651 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11482-020-09833-2
Elsden, E. and Roe, B. (2021), "Does arts engagement and cultural participation impact depression outcomes in adults: a narrative descriptive systematic review of observational studies", Journal of Public Mental Health, Vol. 20 No. 3, pp. 159-171. https://doi.org/10.1108/JPMH-06-2020-0060
Flyharty, M.; Bu, F; Bone, J; Fancourt, D; Paul, E. Associations of arts and cultural engagement with substance use trajectories in adolescence and early adulthood: a latent growth curve analysis of the Add Health cohort https://psyarxiv.com/nz7ps/ June 25, 2022
Bille, T; Fjællegaard, C. B; Frey, B. Steiner, L. Happiness in the arts—International evidence on artists’ job satisfaction https://doi.org/10.1016/j.econlet.2013.06.016
AThR, SEP, ANZACATA, IEATA
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