Art-based interventions and art therapy to promote health of migrant populations - a systematic literature review of current research.

BACKGROUND: This review aims to identify and analyse studies on art-based interventions and art therapy that are intended to promote better physical, mental and social health outcomes in culturally and linguistically diverse migrant populations. METHOD: A systematic literature review was used to address the following questions: 1) What published studies over the past five years examined health outcomes? 2) What are the identifying characteristics of the studies? 3) What kinds of effect did these studies describe? 4) What implications do the findings have for future research in this field? RESULTS: Art-based interventions and art therapy can significantly reduce traumatic stress symptoms and anxiety, enhance well-being by giving people greater life satisfaction and hope, and improve the social behaviour of children and adolescents. CONCLUSION: In order to address humanitarian concerns in this field, researchers may apply innovative approaches to engage people from a refugee background in meaningful reflections on their lives.

Creative Arts Interventions for Stress Management and Prevention-A Systematic Review.

Stress is one of the world's largest health problems, leading to exhaustion, burnout, anxiety, a weak immune system, or even organ damage. In Germany, stress-induced work absenteeism costs about 20 billion Euros per year. Therefore, it is not surprising that the Central Federal Association of the public Health Insurance Funds in Germany ascribes particular importance to stress prevention and stress management as well as health enhancing measures. Building on current integrative and embodied stress theories, Creative Arts Therapies (CATs) or arts interventions are an innovative way to prevent stress and improve stress management. CATs encompass art, music, dance/movement, and drama therapy as their four major modalities. In order to obtain an overview of CATs and arts interventions' efficacy in the context of stress reduction and management, we conducted a systematic review with a search in the following data bases: Academic Search Complete, ERIC, Medline, Psyndex, PsycINFO and SocINDEX. Studies were included employing the PICOS principle and rated according to their evidence level. We included 37 studies, 73% of which were randomized controlled trials. 81.1% of the included studies reported a significant reduction of stress in the participants due to interventions of one of the four arts modalities.

The Effect of Active Creation on Psychological Health: A Feasibility Study on (Therapeutic) Mechanisms.

Creation is an important part of many interventions in creative arts therapies (art, music, dance, and drama therapy). This active part of art-making in arts therapies has not yet been closely investigated. The present study commits to this field of research using a mixed-methods design to investigate the effects of active creation on health-related psychological outcomes. In an artistic inquiry within an experimental design, N = 44 participants engaged in active art-making for eight minutes in the presence of the researcher (first author) with a choice of artistic materials: paper and colors for drawing and writing, musical instruments, space for moving or performing. Before and after the creation, participants completed a well-being, a self-efficacy and an experience of creation scale, and in addition found their own words to express the experiences during the activity. We hypothesized that the experience of empowerment, freedom, impact, and creativity (Experience of Creation Scale) mediates the positive effect of active creation on the outcomes of self-efficacy and well-being, and evaluated this assumption with a mediation analysis. Results suggest that the effect of active creation on both self-efficacy and well-being is significantly mediated by the Experience of Creation Scale. This article focuses on the quantitative side of the investigation. During the process, qualitative and quantitative results were triangulated for a more valid evaluation and jointly contribute to the emerging theory frame of embodied aesthetics.

[An art therapy project day to promote health for clients from burnout self-help groups--an exploratory study]. / Ein kunsttherapeutischer Projekttag zur Gesundheitsförderung bei Klienten aus Burnout-Selbsthilfegruppen--eine explorative Studie.

AIM: The present exploratory study dealt with the question whether a specialized concept of art therapy interventions could increase the current and habitual well-being for participants of burnout self-help groups. METHOD: Quantitative: pre-post: Current well-being: list of discomforts (Beschwerdenliste: B-L); current mood scale (Aktuelle Stimmungsskala: ASTS); Habitual well-being: quality of life (SF-36); qualitative: post: semi-structured interviews with open key questions; evaluation: structured content analysis of Mayring. RESULTS: Quantitative: significant increase of current and habitual well-being; qualitative: generation of 3 general and 8 specific art therapy work factors. CONCLUSION: Specialized resource-activating concepts of art therapy interventions can effectively complement existing programs for burnout prevention and health promotion.