Bone, Jessica;
Fancourt, Daisy;
Fluharty, Meg E;
Paul, Elise;
Sonke, Jill K;
Bu, Feifei;
(2021)
Cross-sectional and longitudinal associations between arts engagement, loneliness, and social support in adolescence.
PsyArXiv Preprints: Charlottesville, VA, USA.
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Abstract
Objective: Although arts engagement holds promise for reducing loneliness and enhancing social support, previous research has focussed on older adults. We investigated whether arts engagement was associated with loneliness and social support during adolescence. / Method: We included 11,060 adolescents aged 11-21 years from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health. The number of school-based arts activities engaged in (band, book club, chorus/choir, cheerleading/dance, drama club, newspaper, orchestra) was measured at wave one (1994-1995) and loneliness and perceived social support were measured at waves one and two (1996). We used logistic and linear regression to test whether engagement was associated with concurrent and subsequent loneliness and social support. / Results: Arts engagement was not associated with concurrent or subsequent loneliness. In contrast, each additional arts activity engaged in was associated with an increase of 0.20 points in social support, concurrently (coef=0.20, 95% CI=0.02-0.38, p=0.03) and longitudinally (coef=0.20, 95% CI=0.02-0.38, p=0.03), independent of confounders. However, evidence for the longitudinal association was attenuated after adjusting for previous social support (coef=0.08, 95% CI=-0.07-0.23, p=0.30). This was likely due to the consistency of social support scores between waves one and two. / Conclusion: Extracurricular arts activities are associated with higher social support, which may be because they provide opportunities for social engagement, developing friendships, and building a sense of community. However, given the lack of association with changes in social support over time, exploring these associations in more detail should be a priority, enabling better understanding of this strategy for enhancing social ties during adolescence.
| Type: | Working / discussion paper |
|---|---|
| Title: | Cross-sectional and longitudinal associations between arts engagement, loneliness, and social support in adolescence |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.31234/osf.io/64d7c |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/64d7c |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | This is an Open Access article published under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) Licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). |
| Keywords: | loneliness, social support, arts, culture, extracurricular activities |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > Institute of Epidemiology and Health > Behavioural Science and Health UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > Institute of Epidemiology and Health UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences |
| URI: | https://discovery-pp.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10147634 |
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