Winston Churchill painted, Judi Dench is known for her crude embroidery and Tom Daley knitted at the Olympics. Now researchers say we could all benefit from creative pursuits and that such pursuits have a greater impact on life satisfaction than a job.
Although arts and crafts have long been used to promote mental health, experts say most research examines the effects on patients rather than the general population, focusing more on specific activities.
However, the researchers now explain that such interests could be an important tool for improving public health in general.
Dr Helen Keyes, a co-author of the study from Anglia Ruskin University, said: “It’s a fairly affordable, accessible and ultimately popular activity for people. And that’s the key. You’re not going to force people to do something they don’t want to do.”
In an article in the journal Frontiers in Public Health, Keyes and colleagues reported how they analyzed data from more than 7,000 people aged 16 or older who completed the UK Department for Culture, Media and Sport’s face-to-face “participation survey” between April 2019 and March 2020.
The survey asked participants to rate various aspects of their well-being on a 10-point scale, indicate whether they participated in arts or crafts activities, and provide demographic information.
The team found that just over 37% of participants reported participating in at least one arts or crafts activity in the past 12 months – from painting to pottery to photography.
The researchers then examined the well-being ratings.
The results showed that people who engaged in arts and crafts scored higher on happiness, life satisfaction and quality of life than people who did not, even after controlling for other factors known to influence life, including age, gender, disadvantage, poor health and employment status.
Keyes said, “So crafting in and of itself is associated with greater increases (in well-being).”
Among other things, the team found that engaging in arts and crafts was associated with an increase in happiness comparable to aging by 20 years (as Keyes notes, well-being increases slightly with age), while the feeling that life is worth living was more strongly associated with crafting than with employment.
Keyes said: “That was probably our most interesting finding, because you might think that a lot of your self-esteem comes from being employed.” The results, she added, may also show that not everyone has a job they find fulfilling, while people often experience a sense of mastery or “flow” – experiencing control, success and self-expression – in arts and crafts activities.
Although the new study does not compare specific creative activities, may not capture all such pursuits that participants engaged in, and cannot prove cause-and-effect relationships, smaller clinical studies suggest that engaging in arts and crafts can increase well-being, Keyes said.
Keyes also acknowledged that the increase in well-being associated with arts and crafts activity was very small – on average, participation in such activities was associated with only a 2% increase in the feeling that life was worth living. But, she said, the results remained significant at the population level.
She added: “If you are a national health service or a government, a two per cent improvement in the overall wellbeing of your population is going to be really significant at a national level.”
Keyes said supporting such activities would provide governments with an easier way to improve the nation’s welfare than other factors known to have a major impact.
“This is something we’re showing that can have a pretty big impact compared to the other factors,” she said. “But it’s a really cheap, easy and accessible thing for us to get people involved with.”
