Creative hobbies give us a sense of self-expression and progress.
Botanical Vision/Alamy
Engaging in arts and crafts improves mental health and a sense that life is worth living, and these activities have positive effects that are equal to or greater than the improvements in mental health that come with employment.
Decades of research have shown that health, income, and employment status are key predictors of people’s life satisfaction. But researchers from Anglia Ruskin University in the UK wanted to explore what other activities and situations might improve mental health. “Crafts are accessible, affordable, and already popular, so we were interested in finding out whether they have health benefits,” the researchers say. Helen Keyes.
Keys and her colleagues analyzed more than 7,000 responses to the annual survey. Participate in the surveyThe survey asks people in England about their involvement in activities such as arts and culture, sport and internet use. All participants were also asked about their levels of happiness, anxiety, loneliness, life satisfaction and whether they feel their life is worth living.
More than a third of participants said they had done at least one arts or crafts activity in the past year, including pottery, painting, knitting, photography, filmmaking, woodworking, and jewelry making. The researchers found that engaging in arts and crafts was associated with higher scores across measures of mental health, even after accounting for factors such as health and employment status.
Although the increase was small (about 0.2 on a 10-point scale), crafting was a stronger predictor of feeling that life was worth living than factors that are harder to change, such as having a job.
“There’s something about making things that gives you a sense of progress and self-expression that you can’t get in a job,” Keys says. “You can take real pride in what you make, and you can see the progress in real time.” The positive effect of creative activities on people’s sense of value in life was 1.6 times higher than in a job situation.
Arts and crafts also increased happiness and life satisfaction, but did not produce significant changes in reported loneliness, which may be because many crafts can be done alone.
Promoting and supporting arts and crafts can be used as a preventative mental health strategy on a national scale, Keys said: “When people do it, they have fun. It’s an easy win.”
topic:
