Art Can Promote Mental Health in Schools: Empirical Evidence From the Front Line

• In Event: Lessons Learned From Humanities Teachers' Instruction

Abstract

This paper presents art as a tool for promoting mental health by examining the effects of art-making with 104 school-based professionals. It tests a new conceptual framework proposing that engagement in visual-tactile process over time mediates a shift to healthy mental states; and that regular, reflective engagement in such process builds mental health capacity. Three hypotheses are tested with statistically significant findings for all (p < .05). I advance flow theory in identifying a new causal mechanism for flow, and provide the first measured evidence of the shift that precedes it: float. I also make a novel contribution to arts education and mental health in providing psychometric evidence that visual art can be used to equitably build mental health capacity.

Author

• Brittany Harker Martin, University of Calgary