Prevalence of Arts Engagement in Childhood and Associated Benefits for Cognitive, Physiological, and Social-Emotional Outcomes

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Abstract

Researchers, funders, and policymakers have started to place importance on studies that provide evidence for how enriching experiences, particularly arts engagement, is related to child outcomes. For example, the National Institutes of Health currently has the Sound Health initiative, which brings together scientists, music therapists, artists, and the public to explore music’s impacts on human development; and the National Endowment for the Arts has funded many descriptive and applied research studies that investigate the value and the impact of arts engagement for individual well-being.

Importantly, results from rigorous and promising research can be particularly useful for when educators, parents, and policymakers consider the cost-benefits that including arts-based activities in childcare, parenting, schooling, and interventions/preventions may have on child development. The four papers included in this session highlight findings regarding the unique attributes of arts engagement through music, visual arts, media/digital arts, dance, and theater, and how the arts can be beneficial for cognitive, physiological, and social-emotional development. The first paper focuses on the physiological outcomes, specifically related to the stress hormone cortisol, of participation in music and dance during preschool. The next two papers focus on elementary school students, with Paper 2 addressing the academic and social-emotional outcomes of using a digital app that integrates arts and meditation/healing activities, and Paper 3 exploring how in-person dance and theater can support social-emotional learning. The final paper explores sociocultural and individual factors that predict the likelihood that middle schoolers will engage in music activities either in-school or at home.

Sub Unit

• Education, Schooling

Chair

• Melissa Menzer, National Endowment for the Arts

Individual Presentations

• The Magic’s in the Making Music: Music, Dance, and Cortisol for Preschool Children Facing Adversity - Ellie Brown, West Chester University; Steven J. Holochwost; Dennie Palmer Wolf, WolfBrown; Alyssa Allen, West Chester University; Presenting Author: Padmaja Charya, West Chester University; Mallory Leigh Garnett, University of Delaware; Blanca Velazquez-Martin; Suzanne Varnell, Purdue University, West Lafayette; Jessa Malatesta

• Art-Based Mindfulness at School: An Integration of Technology, Visual Art, and Healing Practices for Youth - Presenting Author: Janine Jones, University of Washington

• How School-Based Arts Programming Supports Social Emotional Learning for Elementary School Students - Presenting Author: Erica Rosenfeld Halverson, University of Wisconsin - Madison; Yorel Lashley

• Who is Here?: An Analysis of Middle School Music Enrollment - Presenting Author: Allison Reisinger Durbin, University of Maryland - College Park