Arts and Cultural Engagement, Reportedly Antisocial or Criminalized Behaviors in Two Longitudinal Adolescent Cohort Studies

• In Event: At-Risk, Justice-Involved, and Traumatized Youths: Outcomes of Engagement in the Arts

Abstract

Introduction. Reportedly antisocial or criminalized behaviors (RACBs) include a wide range of actions that are counter to accepted behavioral norms or the law. They often include minor crime such as stealing, selling drugs, and using weapons, as well as behavior often deemed antisocial, such as fighting and not following rules. These behaviors have previously and problematically been termed as “delinquent”. Arts and cultural engagement may reduce or prevent such behaviors in adolescence. This novel study uses large nationally representative samples to test whether ubiquitous arts and cultural engagement, as part of everyday life, can reduce subsequent reportedly antisocial or criminalized behaviors.

Study Population. This study used two large nationally representative cohorts, the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (n = 10,610; 50% female, 72% White, age range = 11–21 mean = 15.07) and the National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988 (n = 15,214; 50% female, 73% White, age range = 13–16 mean = 14.38).

Hypotheses. The study aimed to test three hypotheses: 1) that more arts and cultural engagement would lead to fewer reportedly antisocial or criminalized behaviors after accounting for a range of sociodemographic factors (age, gender, race/ethnicity, first language, parental socioeconomic position, neighborhood urbanicity, and school; 2) that this relationship was partially mediated by self-control, which has previously been shown to be improved by arts and cultural engagement and to be linked to reportedly antisocial or criminalized behaviors; 3) that this relationship was also partially mediated by attitudes towards reportedly antisocial or criminalized behaviors, which are often the target of arts-based interventions and are also associated with behavior.

Methods. The study engaged structural equation modelling (SEM) across the three waves of Add Health and NELS:88, which allowed investigation of both direct and indirect associations between arts and cultural engagement, RACBs, and attitudes/self-control scores, while accounting for the relationships between them. The SEMs were estimated using a robust weighted least squares estimator with a diagonal weight matrix that is designed for categorical variables (WLSMV; Muthén & Muthén, 2017). Sensitivity analyses explored gender differences in the associations between arts and cultural engagement and RACBs, and whether arts and cultural engagement was associated specifically with violent RACBs.

Results. We found that more arts and cultural engagement was associated with fewer reportedly antisocial or criminalized behaviors, better self-control scores, and fewer positive perceptions of reportedly antisocial or criminalized behaviors concurrently and one to two years later.

This presentation will overview the study and its findings, and will discuss considerations and implications, including the importance of language used to describe these behaviors and of the inclusion of the arts in schools, the potential for use of the arts in rehabilitation programs, and the relevance of biases in interpreting and using data such as these.

Author

• Jill Sonke, University of Florida
  Presenting Author