According to a new study from University College London, teens who participate in arts and cultural activities such as dancing, drama, reading and going to concerts are less likely to engage in antisocial and criminal behavior until two years later. .
The study was published in the journal ‘Journal of Youth and Adolescence’. Researchers looked at data from more than 25,000 teens in the United States who filled out questionnaires over several years.
They have been involved in a wide range of factors, from attending school clubs, orchestras, choirs, and outside school art classes, whether they have visited museums or gone to concerts, or to read on their own. Measured adolescents’ overall engagement with art activities. ,
They found that the more involved teens were in these activities, the less likely they were to report engaging in antisocial behavior – from school abuse to fights, to criminal behavior such as stealing and selling drugs – in both the first surveys. and when he was again asked about antisocial behavior after another two years.
The team also found that teens and youth who were more engaged in the arts were more likely to have better self-control scores and to view antisocial behavior negatively. These results have previously been found to make young people less likely to engage in antisocial and criminal behavior.
Senior author Dr. Daisy Fancourt (UCL Institute of Epidemiology and Health Care) said, “Previous research has shown that engaging in the arts can have a major impact on the mental health and well-being of adolescents. Adds evidence about the broad benefits of art and culture to people, demonstrating a positive association between the arts and lower prevalence of antisocial behavior.”
“In particular these findings persisted even as children’s age, gender, ethnicity, socio-economic background, their parents’ educational background, where they lived, and their past patterns of antisocial behavior taking into account the factors,” she concluded.
Lead author Dr. Jess Bone (UCL Institute of Epidemiology and Health Care) said, “Our definitions of arts and cultural engagement were very broad. This included dancing and acting in school clubs, reading, going to theatres, museums, concerts and music classes. as well as other hobbies in which the teenagers regularly participated.”
“Finding ways to reduce antisocial behavior among adolescents is important because these behaviors can become established and continue into adulthood, affecting one’s entire life,” he said.
“Our findings demonstrate the importance of making arts and cultural activities available to all youth, especially in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has limited access and funding to these resources,” he concluded.
Researchers looked at data from two US-based longitudinal studies, the National Longitudinal Study for Adolescent Adult Health and the 1988 National Education Longitudinal Study, whose participants were nationally representative. The research team analyzed questionnaires filled out by adolescents and their parents between 1988 and 2002.
The mean age of participants at the start of these studies was 14 to 15 years. In one group, nearly half of the teens reported engaging in antisocial and criminal behavior in the past 12 months. The average number of participants engaged in these behaviors during the year was 1.6.
Although the researchers found that art engagement was associated with less positive perceptions of antisocial behavior and better self-control scores, they could not conclude that these factors were responsible for the association between art engagement and antisocial behavior because the study was observational.
Nevertheless, in considering the mechanisms through which the arts may reduce antisocial behavior, the researchers cited previous studies showing increased empathy, more prosocial behavior, less boredom and better self-esteem, as well as improved emotion. Art engagement including regulation has been shown to improve.
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