The Impact of Arts Engagement on Interpersonal and Intrapersonal Capacities of Underprivileged Youth

• In Event: 14.045 - Roundtable Session 2
  In Roundtable Session: 14.045-3 - Engaging Youth Through STEAM Projects

Abstract

Using interview data from 11 underprivileged African American youth, ages 15-23, from areas of concentrated poverty in a mid-Atlantic city, this study investigates the impacts of arts engagement and by what mechanisms it kept the youth on-track. Analysis reveals several emergent themes that describe how the arts served the youth: by providing them authorship of their individuality; a way to express, process, and retreat; a way to commit; capacity for creative risk; a way to connect; a way to keep busy; joy and love; and a way to aspire. Relationships between these emergent themes and interpersonal and intrapersonal constructs are discussed, as well as their particular importance for underprivileged youth.

Author

• Kerry O'Grady, Johns Hopkins University