Creating a difference - a role for the arts in addressing child wellbeing in conflict-affected areas.

BACKGROUND: Details findings from a project on the potential for arts activities and art therapy to support the mental health and wellbeing of children living in Kashmir. METHODS: The intervention engaged 30 school children over the course of one year who produced various forms of artwork and performances. In this paper, we report on project impacts, drawing on some of our qualitative measures including observations and interviews. RESULTS: Our research details impacts and improvements in areas of emotional expression, belonging, and agency. We also found an important role for schools to create safe, secure, and caring spaces to allow students to express themselves and work through traumatic feelings in a non-judgemental way. CONCLUSIONS: School-based arts interventions can play an important role in the mental health and wellbeing of children. Critical here, however, are dedicated space, time, and resources to provide a supportive environment and to sustain activity in long-term.

Tracking momentary experience in the evaluation of arts-on-prescription services: using mood changes during art workshops to predict global wellbeing change.

AIMS: To measure the immediate impact of participating in arts-on-prescription workshops on multiple dimensions of mood and to evaluate whether improvement in mood is a mechanism for change, predicting improvements in global wellbeing before and after participation in arts-on-prescription programmes. METHODS: The evaluation drew upon the experience sampling method, asking participants to complete a six-item mood questionnaire at the beginning and end of each workshop in a 12-week-long arts-on-prescription programme. Participants also completed a measure of global wellbeing at the beginning and end of the programme. RESULTS: Multilevel modelling was used to test hypotheses since the data were hierarchical (with 1491 mood reports nested within 66 participants). There was a significant improvement in global wellbeing across participation in the arts-on-prescription programme. After each art workshop there was a significant increase on all dimensions of mood: hedonic tone (contentment); tense arousal (calmness); and energetic arousal (alertness). There was also a significant improvement in these dimensions of mood, over time, upon arrival at the art workshops each week. Furthermore, reduction in tense arousal after art workshops significantly predicted changes in global wellbeing. CONCLUSION: The findings suggest that a reduction in tense arousal (feeling less nervous, anxious and stressed) is a crucial component of arts-on-prescription services and make a direct link between experiences during art workshops and changes in global wellbeing for the first time. This strengthens the evidence base for arts-on-prescription and suggests that tracking experience across interventions is a useful evaluation tool, with much potential.

Using the experience-sampling method to examine the psychological mechanisms by which participatory art improves wellbeing.

AIMS: To measure the immediate impact of art-making in everyday life on diverse indices of wellbeing ('in the moment' and longer term) in order to improve understanding of the psychological mechanisms by which art may improve mental health. METHODS: Using the experience-sampling method, 41 artists were prompted (with a 'beep' on a handheld computer) at random intervals (10 times a day, for one week) to answer a short questionnaire. The questionnaire tracked art-making and enquired about mood, cognition and state of consciousness. This resulted in 2,495 sampled experiences, with a high response rate in which 89% of questionnaires were completed. RESULTS: Multi-level modelling was used to evaluate the impact of art-making on experience, with 2,495 'experiences' (experiential-level) nested within 41 participants (person-level). Recent art-making was significantly associated with experiential shifts: improvement in hedonic tone, vivid internal imagery and the flow state. Furthermore, the frequency of art-making across the week was associated with person-level measures of wellbeing: eudemonic happiness and self-regulation. Cross-level interactions, between experiential and person-level variables, suggested that hedonic tone improved more for those scoring low on eudemonic happiness, and further that, those high in eudemonic happiness were more likely to experience phenomenological features of the flow state and to experience inner dialogue while art-making. CONCLUSION: Art-making has both immediate and long-term associations with wellbeing. At the experiential level, art-making affects multiple dimensions of conscious experience: affective, cognitive and state factors. This suggests that there are multiple routes to wellbeing (improving hedonic tone, making meaning through inner dialogue and experiencing the flow state). Recommendations are made to consider these factors when both developing and evaluating public health interventions that involve participatory art.