How does engaging with the creative arts affect health and well-being?

Dec 9

Written By SfNC .

Expert researchers share their latest findings and how to measure the relationship between creativity and well-being. Watch the recording on our member site.

Both laypeople and researchers often assume that engaging with and participating in the creative arts is inherently therapeutic, but what does the evidence actually say? How and under what conditions does creativity enhance our health, mood, social and emotional skills, and other outcomes?

In the panel “Measuring the Impact of the Creative Arts on Health and Other Outcomes”, co-hosted with APA Division 10 as part of SfNC’s Fall Creativity Symposium, expert researchers shared their latest findings, the lessons they’ve learned about how to best conduct rigorous studies in this area, and how we might all make use of creativity to improve well-being.

Jessica Hoffman (Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence) shared how engaging with museums and creative activities can help children and adolescents develop emotional intelligence by teaching them how to perceive and label their emotions as valuable information that they can use to problem-solve.
Jennifer Drake (Brooklyn College CUNY) shared evidence that drawing for distraction can help both children and adults regulate emotions effectively and improve their mood, and highlighted how children are naturally predisposed to drawing as a way to deal with stress, which underscores its utility as a therapeutic practice.
Thalia Goldstein (George Mason University) highlighted how theater education can foster empathy, confidence and creative agency in participants, and how she and others are exploring how these developments may transfer to personal and social development in other domains.
Anjan Chatterjee (Penn Center for Neuroaesthetics) shared that while positive aesthetic experiences are beneficial for our well-being, there is also value potential value in aesthetic experiences that involve challenging emotions, such as fear or sadness. He shared that one of the urgent questions in this space is to explore the psychological conditions in which challenging or unpleasant aesthetic experiences can be constructive rather than aversive.

The panelists also discussed the nuances and inherent messiness of trying to operationalize well-being in the context of creativity, and shared what they’ve learned about how to navigate the practical and theoretical challenges involved, including:

The challenges and limitations of interpreting self-report measures and physiological recordings, especially across diverse age groups.
How to collaborate with stakeholders in this research - including schools, parents, teachers, organizations, and program managers by developing a shared vocabulary and clarity around goals.
The fact that outcomes can be highly contextual, often vary between groups, and how to find the signal in the noise over time.
The value of investing time and research efforts into improving measures for key social and emotional constructs to improve their validity and reliability.
The varied length and durability of the positive benefits seen via engagement with the arts, and the implications for how to structure interventions and follow-up.

SfNC members can access and re-watch the session recording at any time through our member site.