Reviews the documentary film, UNSTUCK: An OCD Kids Movie by Kelly Anderson and Chris Baier (2017). In the film, Anderson and Baier interview six children diagnosed with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), whom they refer to as "kid experts." It provides a new way of educating the public on a psychological disorder that is often casually referenced but frequently misunderstood. With its focus on children and their families, UNSTUCK offers families, educators, therapists, and researchers alike a viewpoint often overlooked in current film and literature regarding OCD: the viewpoints of the children and adolescents themselves. Individuals working in pediatrics or family therapy, thosewith personal or family experience with OCD, and those interested in learning more about the patient-child experience of psychiatric disorders and corresponding impact on family dynamics will be interested in this film. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).


Art therapy and art psychotherapy are often offered in Child and Adolescent Mental Health services (CAMHS). We aimed to review the evidence regarding art therapy and art psychotherapy in children attending mental health services. We searched PubMed, Web of Science, and EBSCO (CINHAL®Complete) following PRISMA guidelines, using the search terms ("creative therapy" OR "art therapy") AND (child* OR adolescent OR teen*). We excluded review articles, articles which included adults, articles which were not written in English and articles without outcome measures. We identified 17 articles which are included in our review synthesis. We described these in two groups-ten articles regarding the treatment of children with a psychiatric diagnosis and seven regarding the treatment of children with psychiatric symptoms, but no formal diagnosis. The studies varied in terms of the type of art therapy/psychotherapy delivered, underlying conditions and outcome measures. Many were case studies/case series or small quasi-experimental studies; there were few randomised controlled trials and no replication studies. However, there was some evidence that art therapy or art psychotherapy may benefit children who have experienced trauma or who have post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms. There is extensive literature regarding art therapy/psychotherapy in children but limited empirical papers regarding its use in children attending mental health services. There is some evidence that art therapy or art psychotherapy may benefit children who have experienced trauma. Further research is required, and it may be beneficial if studies could be replicated in different locations.


Research in basic and clinical neuroscience of music conducted over the past decades has begun to uncover music' high potential as a tool for rehabilitation. Advances in our understanding of how music engages parallel brain networks underpinning sensory and motor processes, arousal, reward, and affective regulation, have laid a sound neuroscientific foundation for the development of theory-driven music interventions that have been systematically tested in clinical settings. Of particular significance in the context of motor rehabilitation is the notion that musical rhythms can entrain movement patterns in patients with movement-related disorders, serving as a continuous time reference that can help regulate movement timing and pace. To date, a significant number of clinical and experimental studies have tested the application of rhythm- and music-based interventions to improve motor functions following central nervous injury and/or degeneration. The goal of this review is to appraise the current state of knowledge on the effectiveness of music and rhythm to modulate movement spatiotemporal patterns and restore motor function. By organizing and providing a critical appraisal of a large body of research, we hope to provide a revised framework for future research on the effectiveness of rhythm- and music-based interventions to restore and (re)train motor function.


This paper explores the relationship between place and health inequity as experienced by Aboriginal youth living in Winnipeg, Canada. Between 2010 and 2011, a team of youth (N = 8) associated with a community-based Aboriginal youth arts program undertook a participatory community mapping process in order to link their personal health geographies to their right to the city. The results demonstrated several ways in which place, mobility, and boundaries affected their health experiences and, in turn, reflected their perceptions of health inequity. The study confirms that urban spaces can produce, and are produced by, highly racialized geographies that work to socially isolate, segregate, and immobilize Aboriginal youth while concomitantly increasing their exposure to higher risks to their health and well being.


This chapter summarizes the waypoints of the author's sandtray journey and her intense desire to know more. It has been a search for ways to articulate how and why playing in the sand helps to heal. Each waypoint has been integrating and satisfying, and each has led the author to interesting explorations of the following concepts: interpersonal neurobiology, polyvagal theory, brain laterality, right brain-to-right brain communication, and wordless storytelling. Looking back at this journey, the author was deeply grateful for how each waypoint contributed to her overall understanding not only of the sandtray, play, and storytelling, but also the importance of the wider field of the expressive arts to mental health. Telling stories verbally or nonverbally through creating a sandtray to visualize, feel, and experience one's life story is the essence of having an enhanced playground for expressing oneself fully. These two waypoints within the context of clinical stories led to practical applications of science-informed concepts that helps to make clinical decisions in the moment for a particular response or an intervention of some kind. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)


Organized school activities and community programs have the potential to provide key supports and opportunities for youth, especially for low-income youth who are in the greatest need of additional supports (Furstenberg et al., 1999). Calls have been made to identify potential mechanisms of development that link activity participation to youth outcomes. The extent to which youth are autonomously motivated about participating in their activity, in other words, how self-determined they are in regulating their behavior (Deci & Ryan, 2002), may be one such mechanism. There are three key features of activity participation that may promote autonomous motivation: the type of activity a young person participates in (e.g., sports vs. academic clubs), connectedness to adults in their program, and the duration or length of their participation. In addition, engagement in reflective practices may assist youth in drawing out the meaning embedded in their activity experiences, thus enhancing autonomous motivation.
The Afterschool Community Empowerment (ACE) Project was conducted in the fall
of 2009 with 1198 students (56% White, 31% Black/Hispanic/Latino, and 40% participating in the free/reduced lunch program) attending Binghamton High School in
Binghamton, New York. A school-wide paper-pencil survey including an activity
participation inventory and items measuring youth outcomes was used to collect selfreport data. Current activity participants (72% of total sample) also answered
questions about program processes and proximal outcomes.
Overall results from this investigation showed that: a) there was a higher proportion of
high SES youth who reported more favorable outcomes (e.g., well-being) among
activity participants vs. non-participants, b) youth with different characteristics (e.g.,
gender) differed in the types of activities they participate in, how connected they feel
to adults, and their participation duration (e.g., high SES White youth and boys had
greater odds of participating in sports), c) participation in sports and performing and
fine arts programs were associated with significantly higher autonomous motivation
vs. academic clubs and faith-based/community programs, d) connectedness to adults
in programs is the activity participation feature with the strongest positive relationship
to autonomous motivation (parental support moderates this relationship), e) youth who
reported high connectedness and longer duration reported the highest autonomous
motivation, f) autonomous motivation was shown to be positively associated with
three of six indicators of well-being (i.e., life satisfaction, positive affect,
psychological resilience), g) six reflective patterns about program experiences were
identified, and certain participant characteristics were associated with greater odds of
engagement in a particular reflective pattern, and h) youth who engage in a moderate,
well-balanced set of reflective practices (vs. are not reflective at all, for example)
report significantly higher autonomous motivation. Implications for policy and
practice, the limitations of this study, and recommendations for future research are
discussed


Out-of-school-time programs, especially arts-based programs, can be critical players in a community's efforts to prevent school dropout. This research review suggests the following approaches for arts-based programs: (1) recruitment and retention of target populations with multiple risk factors; (2) long-term skill development that engages youth behaviorally, emotionally, and academically rather than a drop-in culture; (3) an emphasis on the critical ingredient of real-world applications through performance; (4) staff development and mentoring; (5) a strategic community-level plan for dropout prevention; (6) and program content reframed toward competencies that underlie better school performance and prosocial behavior, such as communication, initiative, problem solving, motivation, and self-efficacy.


Schools were originally established to teach. The work of educators in public schools has widened to include more than academics. Issues from home and social environments often impede a child's academic performance. In order to learn, children may need help with their cognitive, behavioral, emotional, or social problems. Building capacity for resiliency in students requires attention to psychological well-being and interpersonal skills. School-based art therapy provides immediate, accessible intervention to address the acute and chronic stressors that impede the development of students. The New York University (NYU) Art Therapy in Schools Program offers a model to support students as soon as mental health symptoms are noticed, cultivating collaboration between the student, teacher, and parent. Structured, community-based art therapy interventions provide a venue for collective expression, normalizing responses, and identifying those in need of more intensive care. As students continue to face adversity in their families and communities, school art therapy cultivates creative solutions, providing a renewed sense of agency and resolution. Greater expansion of school art therapy in public education can help to address growing mental health needs. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)


Where language and literacy barriers exist, medical researchers continue to do a poor job of ensuring access to clinical trials. Feedback from key stakeholders suggests that incorporating visual aids into the consent process can facilitate enrollment of neglected populations. This study was initiated to examine whether a collaboration between a teaching hospital and fine arts institution that introduced the topic of health literacy to student artists could be used to generate medical research-related images. Crowdsourcing was used to examine the effectiveness of the illustrations and provide students with feedback from a lay audience. Twenty-five student artists and 184 survey respondents participated in this study. Combined positive ratings of “very” or “fairly” effective ranged from 5-91% while negative ratings of “slightly” or “not” well ranged from 5-89%. Collaborations, as explored in this paper, can promote minority awareness and provide a novel mechanism by which to communicate complex research-related concepts to patients with limited literacy.


Traditional health education efforts rarely align with youth social justice values. The Bigger Picture (TBP), a spoken word arts campaign, leverages a social justice approach to activate youth around the social determinants of type 2 diabetes (T2D). This quasi-experimental study examines the impact of embedding TBP in urban, low-income high schools (3 intervention schools received TBP; 3 comparison schools received a non-health related spoken word program) with respect to (1) health-related mind-sets and expectations; (2) sense of belonging; and (3) civic engagement among youth. Adults and youth who participated in programming at all 6 schools were interviewed, and a content analysis of students' poems was performed. TBP was well-received by adults and students. While students in both TBP and comparison programs described multiple social determinants of T2D, intervention students more frequently articulated the connections between race/ethnicity and T2D as a social justice issue. Further, all comparison students explicitly mentioned individual dietary behavior as a T2D determinant while most, yet not all, intervention students did. Students in both programs reported a high sense of belonging at school and confidence in civic engagement. Content analysis of TBP students' poems revealed youth' detailed understanding of T2D determinants. Future studies might explore program scalability, and how the integration of civic engagement opportunities into TBP curriculum might impact students' capacity to create positive social change. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved)


Given the problematic depictions of Native Americans and the pervasive cultural biases
that exist, we asked how contemporary educational practices in museums might address
these preconceptions. Moreover, what conceptual tools are available to encourage viewers
to consider the context of their received wisdoms rather than passively absorb
conventional representations? In the present study, we tested whether and how viewers
perceptions and interpretations of Native peoples might be affected by encouraging
empathy - specifically by taking the perspective of the Native individual depicted in a
photograph they are visually analyzing.
Whereas prior research on American Indian exhibitions has primarily utilized in-depth
interviews and sample survey questionnaires to rate visitor satisfaction,1 our research goes
further, examining perceptual, emotional, and cognitive processes using various novel
metrics. Specifically, we measured viewer' eye movements, physiology, self-reports, and
verbal and written responses to photographs of American Indians in both a controlled lab
setting and in the context of a museum. Research at these two distinct sites often
converged, indicating consistency and greater accuracy of findings.
Our data (including eye tracking, textual, and coding-based analyses) suggests that
although perspective-taking can lead viewers to interpret American Indians in a more
social, emotional, and human-centered manner than our control conditions, cultural biases
about American Indians were stubbornly resistant to change and, in some cases, appeared
even more frequently for participants encouraged to adopt others' perspectives. Based on
our findings, we submit that many of the current educational approaches for teaching
American Indian subject matter in museums are unproductive in advancing the personhood
of American Indians and perhaps by extension, other disenfranchised communities. We
argue that interventions in cultural intolerance - both standard educational approaches in
the museum (including Visual Thinking Strategies, didactic, descriptive labels and docent or
expert-led tours) as well as psychological approaches - cannot be uniformly applied, but
must be unique to each cultural group impacted. The history of American Indian peoples in
the settler context of the United States must be addressed directly to achieve progress in
social equity.


Although research shows associations between adolescents general arts involvement and academic performance, little research documents links between enrollment in middle school dance elective courses and academic achievement, especially within low-income, urban populations. Further, differences between adolescents who do and do not have access to, or self-select into, middle school dance electives have yet to be identified. We prospectively followed a large (n 31,332), ethnically diverse sample of children from preschool through 8th grade in Miami, Florida. About 7% of adolescents enrolled in a dance elective course at some point in middle school (6th- 8th grade), with the majority of those (68.8%) taking dance for only one year. Black students were more likely than White and Latinx students to attend middle schools that did not offer dance. When dance courses were available, males and Black students were less likely to select into a dance elective. Students who took dance in middle school showed greater initial social skills at age four and better prior academic achievement in elementary school compared with those who did not take dance. Importantly, controlling for all preexisting selection effects and prior academic achievement, dance engagement in middle school was associated with higher grade point averages and standardized test scores, better school attendance, and a lower likelihood of suspension during middle school, with stronger positive effects observed for taking dance electives for multiple years. Implications for future research and educational policy are discussed.


Children's media have the capacity to prepare young learners to develop the knowledge, attitudes, and skills they need to contribute to a more peaceful world. Research suggests international coproductions of Sesame Street and other children's media efforts are linked to positive impact on how viewers perceive themselves and their own cultures, as well as how they perceive others. Creating such media, however, relies on a commitment to a complex development process where the educational needs of children are considered alongside intra- and intergroup dynamics and political realities. This paper presents a practitioners' perspective on the essential components of children's media programs for peacebuilding and, in so doing, recommends a way forward for producing children's media in this domain.


The Seven Vital Conditions for Well-Being is a useful framework for conceptualizing holistic well-being and the Conditions that give rise to it, as well as identifying levers for community change and improvement. It brings together major determinants of health, exposing how parts of a multi-faceted whole work as a system to produce population well-being. This framework helps users consider the properties of places and institutions that all people need all the time to be healthy and well. This framework advances a collaborative, cross-sector approach to improving community health and well-being and helps identify where and how to invest in communities to yield better results over time.


Research has shown that participatory music programs can encourage positive health and well-being outcomes. The purpose of this paper is to explore the impact of participatory music programs, which aim to promote positive mental and physical health and well-being outcomes for young people from culturally and linguistically diverse communities, characterized as at-risk. Method The databases EBSCOhost, ProQuest, SCOPUS, HRCA, Informit, JSTOR, SAGE and OVID were searched for literature published between 2002 and 2013. Outcomes from studies were plotted against the Shultz and Northridge's Social Determinants of Health framework (2005). Results In total, six sources were included in this review. The majority of music participation programs targeted toward young people characterized as at-risk possess positive outcomes on the Proximate and Health and Well-being levels of the SDOH framework, such as a reduction in anxiety, depression, emotional alienation, truancy and aggression. Additionally, participants in programs reported an increase in attendance in school, self-esteem, cultural empathy, confidence, personal empowerment and healthy nutrition. Conclusion Results suggest that participation in music programs is able to encourage positive mental and psychosocial health outcomes for individuals. Considering the short-term focus of programs reviewed, and limitations surrounding data analysis and collection, this paper underscores the need for rigorous research that explores the potential long-term outcomes of similar programs.


Considering the limited opportunities and resources for creative education, artists David Bade and Tirzo Martha, along with art historian Nancy Hoffmann, developed a dynamic platform to support creative young talent on the Dutch Caribbean island of Curaçao. The aim of Instituto Buena Bista (IBB), founded in 2006, is to strengthen the arena of culture and the visual arts by offering young Curaçaoans a basic but thorough course in art education that is meant to function as a springboard to more advanced art schools. With only two years of operation, the IBB is already seeing how some of its students go to art academies abroad and participate in art contests in the Netherlands. An exploration of how the IBB is filling up a cultural void by proposing an alternative to local youth education that allows them to develop a buena bista-a new and different view of their island, their futures, and themselves.


Overview: In the backdrop of a booming economy and growing
prosperity, King County has been grappling in recent
decades with issues such as income inequality, educational
opportunity, affordable housing and homelessness,
healthy aging, and 21st Century workforce development.
These multifaceted issues continue to draw investment,
intervention, and vocal concern but seem to defy existing
approaches and solutions.
This study of the social impact of the arts injects insights
into the regional conversation about how the arts can
play a unique, powerful role in addressing these complex
community needs. It is part of a growing movement of arts
leaders partnering with civic and community leaders to
understand and articulate the impact of arts on society, and
it starts with a question:


Worldwide, interest is increasing in community-based arts to promote social transformation. This study analyzes one such case. Ecuador's government, elected in 2006 after decades of neoliberalism, introduced Buen Vivir ('good living' derived from the Kichwan sumak kawsay), to guide development. Plans included launching a countrywide programme using circus arts as a sociocultural intervention for street-involved youth and other marginalised groups. To examine the complex ways by which such interventions intercede in 'ways of being' at the individual and collective level, we integrated qualitative and quantitative methods to document relationships between programme policies over a 5-year period and transformations in personal growth, social inclusion, social engagement and health-related lifestyles of social circus participants. We also conducted comparisons across programmes and with youth in other community arts. While programmes emphasising social, collective and inclusive pedagogy generated significantly better wellbeing outcomes, economic pressures led to prioritising productive skill-building and performing. Critiques of the government's operationalisation of Buen Vivir, including its ambitious technical goals and pragmatic economic compromising, were mirrored in social circus programmes. However, the programme seeded a grassroots social circus movement. Our study suggests that creative programmes introduced to promote social transformation can indeed contribute significantly to nurturing a culture of collective wellbeing.


Intervening in discussions about gentrification and placemaking, cultural activist Roberto Bedoya champions the creative resilience found in communities of color—and exemplified by the Chicano practice of Rasquachification—to suggest “placekeeping” as a strategy for advancing racial justice goals.


There is increasing concern about children's mental well-being and an urgent need for research into how to support positive mental health; including as part of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Alongside this is the heightened awareness about diminished access to green spaces and diminished exposure to the arts for children. Our research aims to show the potential for addressing these three issues in tandem through a qualitative case study exploring the work of one charity, Cambridge Curiosity and Imagination (CCI). The charity undertakes arts-based projects in nature with children. In particular, this article considers the implications of CCI artist pedagogues' perceptions of their nature-based practice for children's well-being. The research comprised a 'talk and draw' focus group followed by individual interviews with CCI artists. Findings show artist pedagogues' work has the potential to support aspects of children's well-being through promotion of agency, developing confidence and providing inspiration to support creativity.


Study Objective. Suicide is a serious health problem that is shaped by a variety of social and mental health factors. A growing body of research connects the arts to positive health outcomes; however, no previous systematic reviews have examined the use of the arts in suicide prevention and survivorship. This review examined how the arts have been used to address suicide prevention and survivorship in nonclinical settings in Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States of America. Design and Setting. Ten bibliographic databases, five research repositories, and reference sections of articles were searched to identify published studies. Articles presenting outcomes of interventions conducted between 2014 and 2019 and written in English, were included. Primary Results. Nine studies met inclusion criteria, including qualitative, quantitative randomized controlled trials, quantitative nonrandomized, quantitative descriptive, and mixed-methods studies. The programs studied used film and television (n = 3), mixed-arts (n = 3), theatre (n = 2), and quilting (n = 1). All nine interventions used the arts to elicit emotional involvement, while seven also used the arts to encourage engagement with themes of health. Study outcomes included increased self-efficacy, awareness of mental health issues, and likelihood for taking action to prevent suicide, as well as decreases in suicidal risk and self-harming behaviors. Conclusions. Factors that influence suicide risk and survivorship may be effectively addressed through arts-based interventions. While the current evidence is promising with regard to the potential for arts programs to positively affect suicide prevention and survivorship, this evidence needs to be supplemented to inform recommendations for evidence-based arts interventions.


The author investigates the condition of a public school's arts education program under the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act and obtains teachers' perspectives on their experiences under the federal policy. The author used qualitative and quantitative approaches to conduct a case study of an Ohio public school district. The data collected revealed changes in the arts education curriculum, particularly in music. Teacher interviews provided the context in which the changes occurred and a more accurate representation of the decrease in arts learning opportunities and the challenges that exist for arts education funding under NCLB. The information illustrated how administrative decisions made to improve test scores and accommodate policies mandated by NCLB threatened arts education.


A cross-sector collaboration among a community-based organization, a prison arts program, and state departments of Public Health, Education, and Correction was established to address critical health education prevention efforts for at-risk high school-aged youth. The Tell Me What You See initiative utilizes artwork and poetry created by incarcerated youth to promote sexually transmitted disease (STD), HIV, and hepatitis prevention with students in public high schools and juvenile justice facilities. This innovative intervention integrates functional health knowledge and skills-based education through an art-based interdisciplinary approach reaching various populations of youth in multiple settings across a state. Evaluation results indicated that the materials effectively engage youth and open up a critical dialogue among peers and adults by addressing the role personal behavior can have in the prevention of STDs, hepatitis, and HIV. Lessons learned and recommendations are provided.


We report three cycles of an 'action research' project aimed at increasing the capacities of young people at risk in a rural Australian town. Drawing on an 'experience-based' approach to risk assessment and the concept of collective efficacy, we aimed to provide a group of 10 young people with a safe and uncensored space within which to voice their own concerns about the risks and problems confronting them. Their stories were then made public through theatrical performance. The purpose of the article is to demonstrate the dynamics of capacity-building in marginalized communities as a means of producing the political changes required for improving health outcomes in a setting previously opposed to such a strategy.


This third installment of the New Jersey Arts Education Census Project is a clear milestone for arts education in our state. New Jersey is now reaching the point of “universal access” to arts education for all students, with 99% of schools providing and 99.4% of students attending schools with arts education during the 2015/2016 school year. Only 26 schools (with 9,160 students) reporting no arts instruction stand between us and this important goal. Once achieved, New Jersey will be the first state in the nation to be able to make this claim. As we move beyond the issue of access, participation and quality emerge as the new areas of focus. When it comes to participation, this report highlights the significant gains that have been made. More than 76% of all students in New Jersey now participate in arts education every year. In the past decade we have seen a 12% increase in student participation. This means an additional 100,000 students annually participate in arts education bringing the yearly total to nearly 1 million students. Something to truly celebrate. However, our work remains unfinished. In spite of our gains in participation over the past decade we still have more than 40,000 elementary students and another 40,000 middle schools students who should be participating in the arts (based on state policies) that are not. There are another 40,000 or so high school students who could also be participating that are not. In addition to participation rates and arts spending, student-to-arts-teacher ratios tend to be more favorable in schools serving more affluent populations. This was something we did not find a decade ago. No child should be denied the significant documented benefits provided through active participation in arts education. This is an equity issue of great importance. So now our focus turns to increasing participation to 100% at both elementary and middle school level and 60% at the high school level. By reaching these goals another 120,000 students will gain the benefits and education in the arts provides and we will reach a statewide participation rate of 85%. To improve quality we must address the documented inequities that are present in our less affluent schools.
In a world where imagination, creativity and innovation are sculpting our future, ensuring we provide the inspiration for these skills for all students must be our goal. That is why we must insist on ARTS ED NOW, for Every Child in Every School.


In 2020 Wallace and SMU DataArts released The Alchemy of High-Performing Arts Organizations, a report that examined the question: How do high- performing arts organizations achieve financial health? In Part II of this report, researchers focused on arts organizations of color to examine how 21 arts leaders viewed the reasons for their success, along with the distinct challenges they face.

The study was based on interviews with 11 arts organizations of color in dance, music, theater and multi-disciplinary performing arts, and 10 community-based arts organizations. The organizations—located in 13 cities around the country—were diverse in budget size (from $146,000 to $15 million) and self-identified as serving predominantly Black, Indigenous, Hispanic/Latinx, Arab American or Asian American communities. Despite their differences, the report finds that leaders from all 21 organizations saw deep community engagement and high-quality programming as critical to financial health.
Research was conducted in August and September 2020 and takes into account the challenges that accompanied the COVID crisis, providing additional insights that may help other organizations consider potential strategies for recovery. Even as the challenges and economic hardships persist, notably more than 80 percent of the arts leaders interviewed indicated that their organizations are financially stable.

Interviewees in this study also identified a number of challenges that arts organizations of color face, specifically: racism, gentrification, lack of equitable access to funding. In addition, interviewees emphasized limitations in organizational capacity due to the constraints of low compensation levels and staff resources, which can lead to difficulty in recruiting high caliber talent and staff burnout.

The study also identifies in a graphic depiction the “mental map” leaders used to think about the stages of organizational development that lead to financial health—including internal and external factors that can enable or hamper success.


Background: Edutainment has long been used as a strategy in health promotion and public health wellness interventions. In March 2019, a large US southeastern university hosted a multimodal theatrical production entitled From Colored to Black (FCTB). The play used a historical lens to broadly address social determinants of health such as disparities in education, access to health services, fair housing and health outcomes. This creative intervention was intended to encourage progressive, justice-oriented attitudes about historically disenfranchised Black communities in North Central Florida. Methods: Driven by an arts-based education approach and constructs from narrative transportation theory, the study employed directed qualitative content analysis to evaluate audience commentary and examine how a play on historic health inequities in Black communities could activate cognition, emotion and imagination for critical thinking about present-day wellbeing. Results: Qualitative survey data in response to the artistic presentation revealed the following subthemes: fascination, assumed truthfulness, satisfaction, feelings of inspiration, enthusiasm, negative attitudes, hopelessness and emotional disconnect. Conclusions: Edutainment continues to be a strong intervention tool. Feedback indicates audience members experienced both highly immersive moments and low transportation-inducing points that ultimately influenced critical reflection on some of the themes addressed in the play.


Little is known about the dose-response relationship between recreational arts engagement (for enjoyment, entertainment or as a hobby, rather than therapy) and mental well-being in the general population. The quantification of this relationship is of value to: (1) health professionals, clinicians and researchers interested in utilising the arts as a method for improving mental health; (2) to health promoters and policy makers in the development of population based health messages, policy and practice; and (3) to members of the general public in maintaining or improving their own well-being. As guided by theories of social epidemiology and the biopsychosocial model of health, the first aim of this study was to determine if there was a relationship between arts engagement (hours per year) and mental well-being in the general population. If an association was demonstrated, the second aim was to quantify this relationship.


The present study examined the impact of intensive arts integration on school readiness for economically disadvantaged children attending Head Start preschool. Participants were 265 children, ages 3-5 years. Of these, 197 attended a fully arts-integrated Head Start, where children received daily music, dance, and visual arts classes in addition to homeroom, and 68 attended a matched comparison program that did not include arts classes. The Bracken Basic Concepts Scale, Third Edition- Receptive (BBCS-3:R) was used to measure children' school readiness at the start and end of a year of preschool attendance. According to a repeated-measures multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA), children at the arts-integrated Head Start showed greater gains in school readiness compared to their peers at the comparison program. Univariate tests revealed that attendance at the arts-integrated preschool was associated with greater gains on a general school readiness composite as well as in specific concept areas of texture/material and self/social awareness. Findings suggest that the arts can add value to Head Start preschool. Implications concern the arts as a vehicle for equalizing educational opportunities for young, economically disadvantaged children.


Art related to birth stimulates debate, particularly if it is perceived to be taboo and challenging popular images of mother and child. Birth traditionally has been in a woman's sphere of experience, thus it has been left unexplored on a wider level. The Birth Rites Collection was originally developed to enable partnerships with artists and childbirth professionals. The other important reason for the Birth Rites project was to begin to make contemporary cutting edge art around childbirth because there has been a real lack of work which explores this subject. Student midwives have been able to engage with these and other artworks related to childbirth and now produce their own original art which is attracting acclaim. The Art of Midwifery student midwife project aims to promote more aesthetic and creative ways of learning to enhance midwifery students' self-awareness and thus promote holistic, woman-centred and sensitive care. Students have visited art exhibitions to interact with artworks related to curriculum themes and explore models and philosophies of birth. This paper reports some of their activities, summarises their responses and evaluates the collaboration.


Critical consciousness has been linked to a range of positive outcomes, particularly among marginalized youth; yet, evidence on its developmental antecedents remains limited. The current study examines whether arts participation is associated with positive change in critical consciousness, and whether these associations differ by youth's social group status. The sample consisted of high school youth (N = 2537; 10% Latinx, 7% Multiracial; 4% Black; 5% Asian; 72% White; 2% Other; 53% Female; Mage = 15.69; age range = 10-20). The results showed that youth with higher arts participation demonstrate higher growth in critical reflection and action, adjusting for baseline critical consciousness, other types of extracurricular participation, and demographic characteristics. The association between arts participation and critical action was significantly stronger for youth of color than for white youth, and the association between arts participation and critical reflection was marginally significantly stronger for white youth than for youth of color. These findings suggest that it is crucial to extend opportunities for arts involvement to all students, and to expand the ways in which arts involvement can promote critical consciousness for youth of varying dimensions of oppression and privilege.


Previous research has indicated a strong need to develop therapies that prevent the development of psychological problems in youth as opposed to treatment after the fact. In the current study, twenty-three female and nineteen male elementary school students with ages ranging from 9 to 12, participated in a single group within-subjects curriculum-based intervention promoting coping skills and resilience. Students engaged in art therapy combined with CBT and DBT modalities. Results indicated significant increases for the total sample in resilience, social and emotional functioning. Results also indicated male students' overall stronger improvement relative to female students. Socio-cultural implications and directions for future research are addressed.


Background: The United Kingdom All-Party Parliamentary Group on Arts, Health and Wellbeing was formed in 2014 and, the following year, initiated an Inquiry into the relationship between arts engagement, health and wellbeing. This led to a substantial report being launched in Parliament in July 2017.Methods: The Inquiry comprised 16 round-table discussions, a series of expert meetings and a lengthy period of desk-based research. The latter applied a realist method in seeking to reconcile policy, practice and evidence. Consideration of the social determinants of health formed the theoretical framework.Results: Evidence was found of a beneficial relationship between arts engagement, health and wellbeing across the life course.Conclusions: Arts engagement can mitigate the social determinants of health by influencing perinatal mental health and child cognitive development; shaping educational and employment opportunities and compensating for work-related stress; building individual resilience and enhancing communities. Further research is needed in this area.


Educators tell us that art encourages fine motor skills, neural development, and problem-solving abilities and that it can be used effectively to teach and understand other key subjects such as reading, writing, math, and science.

Therapists tell us that art is valuable because it allows children to process their world, to deal with sometimes scary emotions in a safe way, and because it gives them critical sensory input.

Artists tell us that art is important for its own sake—as a source of beauty and expression, as well as simply for the process of creating.

Kids tell us that art is fun, an activity they enjoy.

Parents tell us that art is vital to their families because it keeps everyone engaged and happy and helps with the sometimes difficult transitions of the day.


This review explores the relationship between engagement with the creative arts and health outcomes, specifically the health effects of music engagement, visual arts therapy, movement-based creative expression, and expressive writing. Although there is evidence that art-based interventions are effective in reducing adverse physiological and psychological outcomes, the extent to which these interventions enhance health status is largely unknown. Our hope is to establish a foundation for continued investigation into this subject and to generate further interest in researching the complexities of engagement with the arts and health.


A recent national report heartily supported arts integration as an effective, innovative, and cost efficient way to address teachers' and students' needs; however, the report called for a better understanding of when, for whom, and what content areas are best served by arts integration methods. The effectiveness of drama-based pedagogy (DBP), a type of arts integration, has been assessed in previous meta-analyses; however, an updated meta-analysis is warranted. In the present report, we review and meta-analyze thirty years of accumulated research of the effects of drama-based pedagogies on literacy related student outcomes. The findings show a significant positive effect of DBP on achievement, attitudes, 21st century skills, drama skills, and motivation. In particular, effects are more positive when DBP is led by a classroom teacher over multiple hours of instruction. Limitations and implications are discussed.


Introduction: Improving the mental status of children with cancer is part of nurses' duties in planning nursing care and is achieved in different ways. This study attempts to combine drawing with peer interaction to improve the mental status of sick children and investigate the effect of exchanging drawings with peers on these children's happiness.

Method: This clinical trial was conducted on a sample of 66 children with cancer, ages 7-11 years, who were randomly assigned to two groups. The intervention was carried out over five weeks by the exchange of drawings between healthy children at school and children with cancer. Both groups of children drew one drawing each week. The children's happiness was measured by the researcher before and after the intervention (i.e., week five) using a questionnaire.

Results: The results showed no significant differences between the two groups in terms of happiness after the intervention. The happiness score was 3.15 ±0.34 in the control group and 3.02 ±0.3 in the intervention group before the intervention; afterwards, this score was 3.022± 0.22 among the controls and 3.11± 0.25 among the patients. The comparison of the two groups using the t-test showed P = 0.075 before the intervention and P = 0.11 after the intervention.

Conclusion: Given the results obtained, future studies are recommended to administer lengthier interventions and enable the physical presence of healthy peers along sick children or to use the exchange of drawings with peers in combination with other psychological interventions so as to promote happiness in children with cancer.


Creating media to counteract the plethora of media and advertising that perpetuates negative body image is a scalable public health strategy that can be achieved through innovative micro-interventions. This study examined the immediate and short-term (one-week follow-up) impact of viewing brief, evidence-informed animated films on young people's body image, media literacy, and self-efficacy in addressing appearance teasing. The animations were co-created through a partnership among academics, a personal care brand's social mission, and a children's television channel. Participants aged 7-14 (N = 1329, 49 % girls) were randomised into one of three viewing conditions: Appearance Teasing & Bullying, Media & Celebrities, or a non-appearance-related animation. Contrary to predictions, all three animations were comparably effective at eliciting intervention effects. For girls and boys aged 7-10, all three animations immediately improved state body satisfaction (+boys aged 11-14; Cohen's ds = .60-.71) and led to sustained improvements in trait media literacy (+girls aged 11-14; ds = .38-.61), sensitivity to appearance teasing (+boys aged 11-14; ds = .35-.48), and willingness to ignore appearance teasing (7-10 years only; ds = .34-.74) at one-week follow-up. Findings indicate that children's media is an effective medium for developing micro-interventions.


Many studies have explored the links between music and children' outcomes; however, study designs have not been sufficiently rigorous to support causal findings. This study aims to assess the effects of a large-scale music program on children' developmental functioning in the context of high rates of exposure to violence. The paper describes the results of an experimental evaluation of Venezuela' National System of Youth and Children' Orchestras. The curriculum of the program, better known as “El Sistema,” emphasizes social interactions through group instruction and group performances. The randomized control trial was conducted in 16 music centers between May 2012 and November 2013. In total, 2914 children ages 6-14 participated in the experiment, with approximately half receiving an offer of admission to the program in September 2012 and half in September 2013. The treatment group children participated for one semester more than the control group children. After 1 year, full-sample ITT estimates indicate improved self-control (by 0.10 standard deviations) and reduced behavioral difficulties (by 0.08 standard deviations), both significant at 10% after controlling for multiple hypothesis testing. There were no full-sample effects on other domains. Sub-sample effects are larger among (1) children with less-educated mothers and (2) boys, especially those exposed to violence at baseline. In the latter subgroup, we find lower levels of aggressive behavior. We find that the program improved self-control and reduced behavioral difficulties, with the effects concentrated among subgroups of vulnerable children. The results suggest the importance of devising mechanisms to target resources to the most vulnerable children.


Aims: Health-promoting strategies need to be culturally appropriate to encourage healthy behaviours and lifestyle choices in children and young people. This rapid review explores the effects of participating in creative activities on the health and well-being of children aged between 11 and 18 years.

Methods: Building on an earlier systematic review undertaken by Daykin and colleagues(1) a rapid review of the literature published between 2004 and 2011 was undertaken. The search was conducted systematically and included research on music, dance, singing, drama and visual arts, taking place in community settings or as extracurricular activities in mainstream schools. Therapies such as art, drama and music were excluded from the review.

Results: Following rigorous application of inclusion and exclusion criteria, 20 papers were included in the review: six quantitative, eight qualitative and six mixed-method approaches. The interventions used in the studies were diverse and the research was heterogeneous, therefore overall synthesis of the results was inappropriate. The review is therefore organised into the following headings: sexual health, obesity, mental health and emotional well-being. Despite the methodological weakness and limitations of the majority of the studies there were some consistencies in their findings. It was found that participating in creative activities can have a positive effect on behavioural changes, self-confidence, self-esteem, levels of knowledge and physical activity.

Conclusions: Although the research evidence is generally weak there is some evidence that using creative activities as part of a health-promoting strategy may be a useful method of increasing knowledge and positive behaviours in children and young people.


Aim: To explore the effects of participating in recreational dance on the physical health and psychosocial outcomes of children and adolescents. Method: A systematic review of controlled studies of recreational dance activity involving 5-21-year-olds. Results: Fourteen studies were included in the review covering a wide range of dance styles, population groups and settings. Results point to a consistency of association across a range of different populations and settings that suggest that recreational dance can improve cardiovascular fitness and bone health of children and young people and can contribute to preventing or reducing obesity. There is also more limited evidence that suggests dance participation may improve self-concept and body image and reduce anxiety. Conclusions: There is some evidence to suggest that involvement in dance may have some positive outcomes on physical and psychosocial well-being. Further high-quality research is recommended.


ABSTRACT Background Art therapy is one rehabilitation treatment which enables youth in secure care to express unresolved conflicts, increase self-esteem, and gain insight to personal experiences in a creative and supportive therapeutic space. Aims This study investigated hope and resilience outcomes following art therapy for youth residing in a secure care centre located in Canada. Methods In this pre-post experimental design study, thirteen (N = 13) youth, ages 12-19, received 12 weekly individual art therapy sessions. Hope, resilience, and goals were measured using the Children' Hope Scale (CHS), the Resilience Scale (RS-25), and the Bridge Drawing with Path (BDP) art-based assessment. Results Results indicated that the 12 weekly individual art therapy sessions enhanced hope and resilience in youth residing in secure care by 29% and 16%, respectively. Conclusions Secure care environments may benefit from incorporating art therapy as a rehabilitation treatment to improve youths' levels of hope, resilience, self-determination, and future pathways. Implication for Future Research Future studies should utilise a group design with a control group to evaluate the effects of art therapy on youth residing in secure care environments. Plain-language summary Art therapy is one rehabilitation treatment which enables youth in secure care to express unsettled conflicts, increase self-esteem, and gain understanding of personal experiences in a creative and supportive therapeutic space. This study investigated the effectiveness of art therapy on the levels of hope and resilience in youth residing in a secure care centre located in Canada. In this pre-post experimental design, thirteen youth, ages 12-19, received 12 weekly individual art therapy sessions. Hope, resilience, and goals were measured using the Children' Hope Scale (CHS), the Resilience Scale (RS-25), and the Bridge Drawing with Path (BDP) art-based assessment. Results showed that the 12 weekly art therapy sessions enhanced hope and resilience in youth residing in secure care by 29% and 16%, respectively. Secure care environments may benefit from including art therapy as a rehabilitation treatment to improve youths' levels of hope, resilience, self-determination, and future pathways. Future studies should use a group design with a control group to measure the effects of art therapy on youth residing in secure care environments. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)


The first two decades of 21st-century medicine have witnessed significant transformation in health care delivery, marked health disparities, civil unrest, unprecedented rates of physician burnout and suicide, and unforeseen public health crises in the forms of the opioid epidemic and the coronavirus pandemic. Physicians must be adaptive life-long learners who can effectively respond to these and future challenges. Physicians must learn to interweave their developing scientific knowledge with emotional intelligence, critical thinking skills, and an understanding of social context. The integration of the arts and humanities into medicine and medical education is essential to educating a physician workforce that can effectively contribute to optimal health care outcomes for patients and communities.
This publication does the following:

Reviews the historic and current state of arts and humanities integration into medical education, considers curriculum and assessment methods, and provides guidance on the research and change in culture necessary for effective integration.
Presents recommendations for integrating arts and humanities into medical education.
Presents findings from a review of the literature on arts and humanities integration and an emerging theory of practice to support arts and humanities curriculum development.
Reviews factors supporting the growth of arts and humanities integration and strategies to overcome barriers.
Features examples of programs designed to achieve important learning outcomes, including narrative, improvisation, visual arts, music, theater arts, and the study of history.
This report was published as part of the AAMC FRAHME initiative.


Young people of color residing in distressed urban contexts face challenges in accessing social capital that supports positive development and the transition to educational and employment opportunities. Youth-serving organizations play potentially important roles for youth participants to access and leverage networks. This ethnographic study draws on qualitative interviews, conducted with adolescents at a youth-serving organization based in East Oakland, California, to examine how network-based social capital is activated and sustained for and by urban Black and Latinx youth. We found that relationships with supportive adult staff at the organization put youth in contact with caring, trusted adults of color outside of their families who serve as role models for them. These adults provide loving accountability to young people, serving as critical forces in distressed and stigmatized communities. We also found that adult staff activate social leverage to garner various current and future educational and professional opportunities for the youth there. These unique opportunities serve to boost young people's current self-esteem and also to prime them to envision positive futures for themselves. Overall, these findings point to the importance of interpersonal pathways embedded within neighborhood institutions in the activation of network-based social capital.


Medical education research demonstrates that empathic behaviour is amenable to positive change when targeted through educational programmes. This study evaluates the impact of an arts-based intervention designed to nurture learner empathy through the provision of facilitated visual literacy activities. Health Sciences students (N=19) were assigned to two learning groups: a group that participated in a visual literacy programme at the McMaster Museum of Art and a control group that participated in the normal Health Sciences curriculum. All participants completed an inter-reactivity index, which measures empathy on affective and cognitive levels, prior to and following the programme. Those individuals assigned to the visual literacy programme also completed open-ended questions concerning the programme's impact on their empathic development. The index scores were subjected to independent within-group, between-test analyses. There was no significant impact of the programme on the participants' overall empathic response. However, sub-component analyses revealed that the programme had a significant positive effect on cognitive aspects of empathy. This finding was substantiated by the narrative reports. The study concludes that the affective focus of humanities-based education needs to be enhanced and recommends that learners are educated on the different components that comprise the overall empathic response.


Art is an essential experience for children but it is one that is often hijacked by adults and turned into a product-oriented, adult-directed craft. When I visit programs and see pre-cut shapes, paper plates, and theme-related products displayed on bulletin boards, I am saddened by the missed opportunities.

In the early learning textbook that I co-wrote with Dr. Beverlie Dietze, Playing and Learning in Early Childhood Education we refer to the work of Erika Christakis who determined that art for children should be offered for art' sake. It is also an essential ingredient to a well-rounded education. Art is an expression of one' self. It is a curriculum area that should not be up for debate; rather, it is beneficial to view art as a learning domain, similar to critical thinking and number sense. Historically, art has been a major component of early learning programs. Dewey, Steiner, and Froebel all discussed the importance of art to the development of the whole child. The educators in Reggio Emilia, Italy, also place a high value on art experiences (Vecchi, 2010). Open-ended exploration of art materials and tools should be seen as a right of childhood. However, since the late twentieth century, the wide spectrum of art experiences for young children has continuously been reduced and replaced with activities that have a more academic focus (Christakis, 2016).


This guide, co-authored by Julene Johnson (University of California, San Francisco) and Jeffrey Chapline (New Art Horizons), entails many different kinds of collaboration. First, there is the fortuitous partnership of the authors themselves—one, a cognitive neuroscientist and National Institutes of Health-funded researcher examining the effects of community choir programs on health and well-being; the other, an artist, an arts consultant, and the innovator of cross-generational arts programs serving the Bay Area.
Second, the guide itself is a blueprint for
collaboration, among academic researchers and
arts-in-health practitioners, and among both
these groups and the larger communities they
serve (hence the lynchpin phrase communityengaged research, in the title of this guide).
Third, there is the deeply collaborative impulse
behind the guide. At multiple meetings
of the National Endowment for the Arts'
Interagency Task Force on the Arts and Human
Development—a coalition representing 19
federal entities—members expressed and
examined the value of such a document. This
guide is intended to help arts organizations and
biomedical or behavioral researchers in forming
strategic alliances, in reconciling different
vocabularies, in identifying study goals and
methods, and in bringing community members
along as equal partners.
Professionally-trained researchers can help
arts organizations and artists to understand the
efficacy and effectiveness of their programs; to
validate, improve, and replicate these programs
as health interventions; and to obtain broader
support from funders, policy-makers, and the
community members who are most likely to
benefit. Arts professionals, meanwhile, bring specialized
skills, talents, and methods that are critical to
program delivery; but they also can identify
questions, issues, and concerns of importance
to their artists and audiences. They can help
participating study-subjects to explore social or
emotional factors linked to their health condition
or to the resulting intervention, and they
can help to ensure smooth communications
between the researchers and study subjects.
Apropos of communications: this guide is
intended equally to serve arts professionals
and biomedical or behavioral researchers.
Here, the term “arts professional” is broadly
defined to include practicing community visual
and performing artists, arts administrators,
designers, and arts therapists, plus their
associated organizations and community
collaborators. Credentialed arts therapies
include music therapy, dance therapy, drama
therapy, art therapy, and others. Although
“creative” or “expressive” arts therapy is
gaining ground as a descriptor, this guide uses
the term “arts therapy.” With the term “arts”
(as in “arts professionals” or “arts programs or
interventions”), we refer broadly to the visual,
performing, and literary arts, as well as to
individual forms of visual art, music, theater,
dance, folk arts, design, poetry, creative writing,
and other artistic creations through traditional
and non-traditional media.
Arts professionals—including arts therapists—
work in a variety of settings, whether museums,
performing art venues, schools, civic centers,
prisons, hospitals, or clinics. Likewise, the
biomedical and behavioral researchers
most likely to benefit from this guide may
come from different backgrounds. Such
researchers commonly work in academic
centers, in government agencies or nonprofit
organizations, or in private research firms.
Arts professionals and researchers who have
an interest in studying the effects of the arts
on health, in filling other gaps in knowledge, or
in extending research to new programmatic
or therapeutic areas, are encouraged to use
this document. It gives practical tips on how to
engage in research collaborations and how to
design and implement meaningful arts-andhealth research studies.


Background: American Indians and Alaska Natives have traditionally used stories and drawings to positively influence the well-being of their communities.

Objectives: The objective of this study was to describe the development of a curriculum that trains Native youth leaders to plan, write, and design original comic books to enhance healthy decision making.

Methods: Project staff developed the Native Comic Book Project by adapting Dr. Michael Bitz's Comic Book Project to incorporate Native comic book art, Native storytelling, and decision-making skills. After conducting five train-the-trainer sessions for Native youth, staff were invited by youth participants to implement the full curriculum as a pilot test at one tribal community site in the Pacific Northwest. Implementation was accompanied by surveys and weekly participant observations and was followed by an interactive meeting to assess youth engagement, determine project acceptability, and solicit suggestions for curriculum changes.

Results: Six youths aged 12 to 15 (average age = 14) participated in the Native Comic Book Project. Youth participants stated that they liked the project and gained knowledge of the harmful effects of commercial tobacco use but wanted better integration of comic book creation, decision making, and Native storytelling themes.

Conclusion: Previous health-related comic book projects did not recruit youth as active producers of content. This curriculum shows promise as a culturally appropriate intervention to help Native youth adopt healthy decision-making skills and healthy behaviors by creating their own comic books.


This paper outlines the growth of interest in the UK in the social and health impacts of the arts from the late 1990s onwards. It highlights the early critiques of claims made about such impacts by Belfiore and Mirza (Mirza, 2006a). Attention is given to two recent commissioned reviews of arts and health research, by the World Health Organization (WHO) Europe, and the UK Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), which conclude that the can arts have an important role in promoting health and reducing social and health inequalities. These reports have substantial limitations, however, and the critical concerns raised by Belfiore and Mirza remain to be addressed. The paper concludes that broad scoping reviews are ill-advised as a guide for practice and policy development, and future progress should be guided by rigorous, systematic and transparent methods that ensure that review results are trustworthy. The arts and cultural engagement may have a part to play in promoting wellbeing, but whether or not they can have a substantial role in promoting population health and reducing social and health inequalities is yet to be demonstrated.


The attitudes and perceptions of adolescents about music have been investigated by researchers and educators for years, which has implications on how they view life circumstances. This qualitative study explored the relationship between rap music and the psychological well-being of fourteen African American adolescents. The research setting was in a mentoring program in a major metropolitan city in the Mid-Atlantic region. The research questions for the study included: (1) What relationship does rap music have to the psychological well-being of adolescents? (2) What are the attitude and perception of African American adolescents about rap music? (3) What function does rap music serve in the lives of African American adolescents? (4) What type of rap music songs promote psychological support for African American adolescents?


Creative youth development (CYD) is a dynamic area of community arts education that successfully bridges youth development and arts education. CYD is an intentional, holistic practice that combines hands-on artmaking and skill building in the arts with development of life skills to support young people in successfully participating in adolescence and navigating into adulthood. Young people in CYD programs exhibit high levels of artistic skill and accomplishment along with increased self-esteem and sense of belonging. CYD participants are immersed in a broad array of rigorous artistic endeavors, including creating documentary films, researching and reporting on community issues through radio broadcasts, writing and staging new theatrical works, and engaging in thoughtful critique of one another's visual art work. The impact for youth of program participation extends beyond pride in artistic accomplishment. Throughout the United States, teen participants in CYD programs assert that the programs saved their lives, putting them on positive trajectories and away from gangs, drug use, crime, and ennui. This article provides a definition for the term creative youth development, describes core characteristics of CYD programs, and briefly describes four CYD programs. It provides background on the origins and history of creative youth development, including current advances in the field and signs the field is coalescing. The article describes creative youth development in the larger contexts of arts education and of education reform. Lastly, the article discusses policy, funding, and research needs and opportunities and provides questions for consideration.


Aims: This rapid review explores the role of arts activities in promoting the mental wellbeing and resilience of children and young people aged between 11 and 18 years.
Methods: A systematic search of the literature was undertaken across 18 databases; no date limit was set on publication. Search terms included a range of creative activities: music, dance, singing, drama and visual arts; these were combined with terms linked to aspects of mental health, emotional wellbeing and resilience. Only studies related to activities that took place within community settings and those related to extracurricular activities based within schools were included.
Results: Following the application of inclusion and exclusion criteria, eight papers were included in the review. The interventions used in the studies were diverse and the research was heterogeneous; therefore, narrative synthesis of the results was conducted. The findings from the studies are considered in terms of the contribution the activities make to building resilience of children and young people. It was found that participating in arts activities can have a positive effect on self-confidence, self-esteem, relationship building and a sense of belonging, qualities which have been associated with resilience and mental wellbeing.
Conclusions: Although the research evidence is limited, there is some support for providing structured group arts activities to help build resilience and contribute to positive mental wellbeing of children and young people.


Cultural organisations often serve as guardians of cultural heritage and, as such, cultural sustainability depends on their ongoing vitality. Many organisations in the cultural sector are, however, presently experiencing intense financial pressures. With their traditional sources of funding being progressively cut off, such organisations are focusing increasingly on monetary donations and the volunteering of time on the part of the general public to help plug the financial gap. Promoting and managing such pro-social behaviours can, however, be costly activities in themselves, so it is critical for cultural organisations to be able to target those segments of the public with the greatest propensity to give. This study sets out to address that need. The findings indicate that individuals who were involved in cultural activities as children are statistically more likely to volunteer their time in later life, not only with cultural organisations but also with good causes in general. In certain circumstances, this is also true of donating money. The cultural organisations benefiting from these pro-social behaviours need not be those with which the individual was involved in their childhood; nor need they be associated with the same form of culture. Importantly, continuous involvement in an activity from childhood into adulthood is not a necessary pre-condition for pro-social behaviour in later life.


The Arts Council of Northeast Louisiana firmly believes that every child should have the opportunity to participate in arts education. Arts accessibility makes children well-rounded, and we believe that children who study arts grow up to contribute to their communities greatly. Study after study shows that arts education is positively correlated with higher attendance, graduation rates, and standardized test scores (Scheuler, 2010). Children involved in arts are less likely to be
suspended out-of-school than those without arts, and when they grow up, they are 26 percent less likely to be arrested than adults who did not have arts education. Additionally, “students of the arts are significantly more optimistic about their chances to attend college than non-arts students,” and they are 55 percent more likely to attend postsecondary school than non-arts students (Elpus, 2013). We believe all children in northeast Louisiana should have the chance to study arts.


The structure of children's responses to art and efforts in making art were examined on a random sample of New Zealand schoolchildren, ages 8-9 and 12-13. Participants completed a set of 6 performance assessment tasks in aesthetic perception and artistic production. Factor analysis and multivariate analysis of variance were used to investigate the underlying structure among the tasks, and to look at the relationships among the factors of aesthetic perception and artistic production, with age, gender, and socio-economic status. Results indicated that a 2 factor solution was robust over age and gender combinations. Also, gender, age, and socio-economic status were all related to both production and perception factors.


Issue addressed: The Torres Indigenous Hip Hop Project (the Project) was conducted in the Torres and Northern Peninsula Area of Queensland during early 2010. This paper provides a critical analysis of project outcomes and identifies criteria that may form a suitable framework for the assessment of proposals for sexual health promotion using performing arts-based approaches in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander settings.

Methods: A case study method was used. The first phase of analysis assessed whether project objectives were met using data collected during project planning and implementation. The second phase used these findings, augmented by interviews with key personnel, to respond to the question 'How could this be done better?'.

Results: The Project required significant human and organisational implementation support. The project was successful in facilitating event-specific community mobilisation. It raised awareness of sexual health disadvantage and engaged effectively with the target group. It laid important groundwork to progress school-based and community mechanisms to address regional youth disadvantage. Against these benefits are issues of opportunity cost and the need for ongoing resources to capitalise on the opportunities created.

Conclusions: With substantial support and planning, such approaches can play an important role in engaging young people and bridging the gap between clinical interventions and improvements in health deriving from community-driven strategies. SO WHAT? This paper contributes to existing literature by identifying key elements of an effective approach to using performing arts in sexual health promotion in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander settings. It also provides guidance when consideration is being given to investment in resource-intensive health promotion initiatives.


Aims:This literature review aims to illustrate the variety and multitude of studies showing that participation in arts activities and clinical arts interventions can be beneficial for citizens with mental and physical health problems. The article is focused on mental health benefits because this is an emerging field in the Nordic countries where evidence is demanded from national health agencies that face an increasing number of citizens with poor mental health and a need for non-medical interventions and programmes.
Methods:A total of 20 articles of interest were drawn from a wider literature review. Studies were identified through the search engines: Cochrane Library, Primo, Ebscohost, ProQuest, Web of Science, CINAHL, PsycINFO, PubMed and Design and Applied Arts Index. Search words included the following: arts engagement + health/hospital/recovery, arts + hospital/evidence/wellbeing, evidence-based health practice, participatory arts for wellbeing, health + poetry/literature/dance/singing/music/community arts, arts health cost-effectiveness and creative art or creative activity + health/hospital/recovery/mental health. The inclusion criteria for studies were (1) peer review and (2) empirical data.
Results:The studies document that participation in activities in a spectrum from clinical arts interventions to non-clinical participatory arts programmes is beneficial and an effective way of using engagement in the arts to promote holistic approaches with health benefits. Engagement in specially designed arts activities or arts therapies can reduce physical symptoms and improve mental health issues.
Conclusion:Based on the growing evidence of the arts as a tool for enhancing mental health wellbeing, and in line with the global challenges in health, we suggest that participatory arts activities and clinical arts interventions are made more widely available in health and social settings. It is well-documented that such activities can be used as non-medical interventions to promote public health and wellbeing.


Background: Healthcare institutions have embraced arts programs as a means of improving the patient experience. While some evidence demonstrates that integrating artwork into clinical settings can improve aspects of patient satisfaction, few randomized controlled trials (RCTs) have linked specific design features or interventions directly to health care outcomes. Methods: We designed a RCT to examine (1) whether placing a painting by a local artist in the line-of-vision of a hospitalized patient improves clinical outcomes and patient satisfaction, and (2) whether having patients choose their own painting offers even greater benefit. From 2014- 2016, we enrolled 186 inpatients with a cancer diagnosis from Penn State Cancer Institute and randomly assigned them to one of three groups: (1) those who chose the painting displayed in their rooms (n=74); (2) those whose painting was randomly selected (n=69); and (3) those with no painting in their rooms, only white boards in their line of vision (n=43). We assessed anxiety, mood, depression, QOL, perceptions of hospital environment, sense of control/influence, selfreported pain, and length of stay, and comparisons were made between patients with paintings versus those without paintings, as well as between those with a choice versus those with no choice regarding the artwork in their rooms. At the conclusion of the study, we held focus groups and one-on-one interviews with participants and used thematic analysis to identify qualitative themes. Results: There were no statistically significant differences in anxiety, mood, depression, QOL, perceptions of hospital environment, sense of control/influence, self-reported pain, and length of stay across the three groups. However, patients in the two groups with paintings did report significantly improved perceptions of the hospital environment compared to those without paintings, specifically that their rooms were more interesting (p=0.002), colorful (p=0.026), 3 tasteful (p=0.016), ornate (p=0.007), attractive (p=0.005), and pleasant (p=0.044). Qualitative themes reinforced the value of having artwork, particularly with regard to offsetting the medical aspects of the room, 'transporting' patients from their suffering, humanizing the healthcare environment, and giving people a degree of control. Participants also identified areas for programmatic improvement. Conclusions: Given that healthcare administrators are under strong pressures to control or reduce costs and yet increase care quality and patient satisfaction, integrating artwork into inpatient rooms may represent one way to systematically improve perceptions of the institution and the patient experience.


Background and Objectives: Activities that provide positive emotions, meaningful social interaction, and psychological stimulation can bolster well-being throughout life. We tested a model of psychological benefit from, and age differences in, adult ticket buyers' involvement with a large regional theatre. Research Design and Methods: We sent online surveys to Actors Theatre of Louisville ticketbuyers, measuring involvement with the theatre, satisfaction/enjoyment, social engagement, flow, and sense of belonging while attending, and well-being. Structural models (N = 496) tested a model of well-being and age differences; focus groups of older subscribers (N = 20) elaborated quantitative findings. Results: As hypothesized, theatre involvement was indirectly related to satisfaction and enjoyment of the theatre, hedonic well-being, and social functioning, through the psychosocial benefits of flow, social engagement, and belonging. Age moderated the model relationships: involvement was more strongly related to benefits for younger than older participants, but there were no age differences in the relationship between benefits and well-being. Focus group participants articulated how theatre contributes to a sense of community and pride of place, connecting individual well-being to community well-being. Discussion and Implications: Involvement in performing arts organizations may have lifelong benefits. The relationship between involvement and psychosocial benefit may be particularly strong for younger audience members despite the fact that older adults have more involvement. Older adults with long-term involvement appear to benefit even when they reduce their involvement. Our qualitative findings underscore the great richness of experience that younger generations might lose as a result of lower participation.


Museums and schools have a long history of working together to facilitate students' learning in and through the arts. While art museums have traditionally served school audiences through a range of single-visit tours, increasingly they are offering more extensive school programs in an effort to provide students with in-depth, comprehensive learning experiences. Studies suggest that as many as half of American museums offer some form of a multiple-visit school program where students might visit the museum from two to ten times a year (Wetterlund & Sayre, 2003). Many other museums offer extended experiences such as pre- and post-visit activities in the classroom (Adams, Luke & Manuel, 2003; IMLS, 2002)


The authors ask if participating in an early-childhood theater production improves pretend play and cooperation among preschoolers. They examined play sessions immediately before and after productions of interactive earlychildhood performances at Imagination Stage, Inc. and measured children' engagement, cooperation, pretense, and misbehavior. They found that participating in the performances enhanced the cooperation and pretense of preschoolers. The authors discuss their results in relation to the role of the arts and of play in early creativity and social-competence development. Key words: cooperation; creativity; early-childhood development and the arts; make-believe; pretense; social competence


Characteristics of children's paintings have been suggested considered for application in public art since they are known to positively evoke a sense of well-being when people see them. This study aims to understand the impact of artistic features from children's drawings on people's well-being; then analyzing the adaptive design principles of 3D public art featuring children's paintings on people's happiness; and finally, exploring the influence of 3D public art featuring children's paintings on improving public spaces and enhancing people's well-being. The results lead to proposing a conceptual framework for public artworks in public spaces for improving people's happiness. The proposed conceptual framework recommends that, by applying the visual and thinking features of children's paintings to public art, artists can design high-quality artworks suitable for a city, which could improve people's happiness in public spaces. This study recommends further research into how public art can promote public spaces and shape the urban culture. It contributes to enhancing the quality of public art and public spaces, and inspiring a sense of well-being among citizens through the use of appropriate public art. The results are significant because they will help artists to create more high-quality public artworks for urban public spaces in order to evoke people's happiness.


Transition Space at the Museum is a community arts-based group program aiming to foster the psychosocial rehabilitation of adolescents and young adults with mental health problems. In this pilot evaluation, we assessed the preliminary effectiveness of the program at improving participants' well-being and social functioning. Following a mixed-methods, single-group, repeated-measures design, we collected data before, during, and after program from participants, clinicians, and close relatives using standardized questionnaires and semi-structured interviews. We found converging quantitative and qualitative results supporting the safety and potential of the program to improve the way participants feel and function socially in the short term. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved)


Introduction: Intergenerational programs have been touted to address the generation gaps and isolation of older adults. Mutual contact alone has produced mixed results, but attention to the intergenerational program content demonstrates well-being benefits. This practice-based article examines the benefits of creating and performing ensemble-created plays to older adults' and university students' well-being and the key processes that promote well-being.
Method: This community participatory research project involved older adults as researchers as well as research subjects. Individual semistructured interviews were conducted by two trained interviewers with older adults (n = 15) and university students (n = 17).
Results: Professional dramaturgical processes of storytelling, reminiscence, and playfulness were key elements in participants' generative learning. They augmented older adults' and university students' ability to understand their situations and try innovative solutions. Skills such as openness, flexibility, and adaptation transferred into students' and older adults' daily lives.
Conclusion: Participating in this intergenerational theatre group reduced ageism and improved intergenerational relationships. It increased older adults' and university students' well-being by building social networks, confidence, and self-esteem and developed a sense of social justice, empathy, and support for others.
Keywords: aging; community-based participatory research; drama; health promotion; intergenerational; older adults; prevention; students.


Inhalant abuse is a significant public health problem that disproportionately affects adolescents. It is therefore critical to advance research on effective interventions to treat this vulnerable population. Because inhalant abuse is well known to compromise neuropsychological functioning, learning, and memory, it creates challenges for language-based psychotherapy. The purpose of this research is to study the effect of a new multimodal therapy—which we refer to as recorded music expressive arts (RMEA)—on symptom reduction and enhanced coping. Through a single case design (16-week ABA design: 3-week baseline, 10-week intervention, and 3-week postintervention), RMEA (involving song- writing, recording, and music production) was evaluated for effectiveness in psychotherapy with a 14-year-old White male, who was experiencing significant neuropsychological sequelae secondary to 3 months of inhalant abuse. It was hypothesized that the RMEA intervention would (a) ameliorate symptoms of depression as measured by the Beck Depression Inventory II and the Symptom Checklist- 90-R, (b) reduce psychiatric symptoms as measured by the Symptom Checklist-90-R, and (c) increase the use of adaptive coping strategies as measured by Adolescent Coping Orientation to Problems Experi- enced. Visual inspection of scale score trends partially supported Hypothesis 1 and more strongly supported Hypothesis 2 and 3. The results suggest that RMEA may be promising in further research with adolescent mental health, especially with those individuals who are in treatment for inhalant abuse—an often difficult-to-treat population refractory to language-based therapeutic approaches.


We've collected information from a variety of sources, and the results are overwhelming:  art helps troubled youth, engendering less stress, healthier emotions, and stronger academic performance. This special report provides strong evidence through studies and youth testimonials.


Background: Efforts to confront the type 2 diabetes (T2D) epidemic have been stymied by an absence of effective communication on policy fronts. Whether art can be harnessed to reframe the T2D discourse from an individual, biomedical problem to a multilevel, communal and social problem is not known.

Method: We explored whether spoken word workshops enable young artists of color to convey a critical consciousness about T2D. The Bigger Picture fosters creation and dissemination of art to shift from the narrow biomedical model toward a comprehensive socioecological model (SEM). Workshops offer (1) public health content, (2) writing exercises, and (3) feedback on drafts. Based on Freire and Boal's participatory pedagogy, workshops encourage youth to tap into their lived experiences when creating poetry. We analyzed changes in public health literary and activation among participants and mapped poems onto the SEM to assess whether their poetry conveyed the multilevel perspective critical to public health literacy.

Results: Participants reported significant increases in personal relevance of T2D prevention, T2D discussions with peers, concern about corporations' targeted marketing, and interest in community organizing to confront the epidemic. Across stanzas, nearly all poems (95%) featured >three of five SEM levels (systemic forces, sectors of influence, societal norms, behavioral settings, individual factors); three-quarters (78%) featured >four levels.

Conclusions: Engaging youth poets of color to develop artistic content to combat T2D can increase their public health literary and social activation and foster compelling art that communicates how complex, multilevel forces interact to generate disease and disease disparities.


Many youth experience declines in psychosocial well-being during the transition from high school to postsecondary. Hypothesizing that extracurricular activity involvement in high school functions as a resource factor, the current study examines type and breadth as predictors of psychosocial well-being one year postsecondary. The sample (N=4070) consisted of students from diverse ethnic-racial and socio-economic status backgrounds (30% Latinx; 60% had a parent without a college degree; 47% cisgender female). Eleventh grade involvement in sports was linked with lower loneliness, social anxiety, and depressive symptoms, and higher self-worth, whereas special interest clubs were associated with lower social anxiety and depressive symptoms. Examining breadth, one or two activities were linked with optimal psychosocial well-being. The results suggest that sports and special interest clubs, and up to two activity domains, are associated with optimal psychosocial well-being, providing recommendations for extracurricular programming and youth involvement.


This study presents a detailed demographic profile of the arts educators working in the public schools of the United States. Using data from the 2011-2012 wave of the National Center for Education Statistics Schools and Staffing Survey, a complete descriptive profile of arts educators overall and within the disciplines of visual art, music, dance, and theater was generated. Specifically, the study presents the profile of arts educators in terms of gender, race/ethnicity, marital status, age, years of experience in the classroom, educational attainment, state teacher certification status, route to teacher certification, National Board for Professional Teaching Standards certification status, full-time/part-time school employment status, and average/median salary. Comparisons among the arts disciplines and between arts and non-arts disciplines are presented as well as analyses for systematic differences in the profiles of arts educators working at differing kinds of schools. Findings indicate that, generally, arts educators look similar to the corps of non-arts educators with a few key differences. These key differences include racial/ethnic diversity (arts educators are more racially homogenous than non-arts educators), gender (arts educators are more likely to be male, driven primarily by the number of male music educators at the high school level), and full-time/part-time status (arts educators are more likely to be employed parttime).


Little is known about fostering sustainable, collaborative community-academic partnerships that effectively improve physical activity and health in residents of under resourced communities using Participatory Action Research (PAR) driven models. The purpose of this PAR study was to evaluate the impact of an urban, intergenerational, and physical activity dance program by identifying community preferred measurable outcomes that promote program participation and sustainability. A descriptive, qualitative design was employed using semi-structured interview guides to facilitate discussions for two adult focus groups and one youth focus group. Exactly 19 community-residing adults and six youth who lived in urban neighborhoods in West Philadelphia participated in the discussions. The audiotapes were transcribed and analyzed using directed content analysis. Five outcome themes emerged and included: (1). Enhancing the psychological and emotional well-being of the individual, (2). Enhancement of social well-being and management of interpersonal relationships and responsibilities (3). Enhancing and promoting physiologic well-being (4). Changes in health promoting behaviors and skill acquisition, and (5). Concerns about accessibility of dance for health and other physical activity programs in the community. Focused attention to measuring community preferred outcomes can promote sustainability of Dance for Health and possibly other urban-based physical activity dance programs.


Background: Children with physical health long-term conditions (LTCs) have increased risk of mental health difficulties relative to healthy peers. However, availability of psychological support integrated into pediatric physical health settings is limited, and there are long waiting times for access to child mental health services. Arts-based therapies involve using creative media to develop a therapeutic relationship, and offer a potential alternative to talking-based therapies. The aim of this systematic review is to establish the effectiveness of arts-based therapies for improving the mental health of children with physical health LTCs.
Methods: The review protocol was published on PROSPERO. Four electronic databases were searched (Medline, Embase, Cinahl, and PsycINFO), plus hand searches of two key journals and relevant reviews, and forward/back citations searches of selected articles were conducted. The Effective Public Health Practice Project (EPHPP) Quality Assessment Tool was used to assess bias in selected articles. Second reviewers completed 10% of article screening and 20% of bias assessments. The findings were synthesized narratively.
Results: Sixteen studies met inclusion criteria and demonstrated some improvements on indicators of mental health and well-being including quality of life, coping behaviors, anxiety, self-concept, and mood. However, replication across interventions and outcomes was absent. Overall, the quality of evidence of effectiveness in the studies reviewed was moderate/weak. This was due to bias in study design; other limitations included a lack of detail on intervention components, e.g., use of a manual, and single recruitment sites.
Conclusions: The heterogeneity of existing research evaluating arts-based therapies for children with physical health LTCs limits conclusions about effectiveness. Suggestions are made to inform the design of future research studies to help build a robust evidence base.