Art boxes supporting parents and infants to share creative interactions at home: an art-based response to improve well-being during COVID-19 restrictions

Armstrong, Victoria; Ross, Josephine

doi:10.1016/j.puhe.2021.01.031

Cited by 9 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 7 publications

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“…Other research carried out at this time found that activities such as drawing, textile art and photography provided individuals with a positive distraction from current events and a sense of purpose 22. Similar to the current study, Armstrong and Ross provided art boxes to parents and children during lockdown to promote connection through playful, creative shared experiences 23. While the current pilot did not allow for participants to make art together, the activity offered a shared artistic experience, and opportunities to learn from others and feel socially connected.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 62%

“… 22 Similar to the current study, Armstrong and Ross provided art boxes to parents and children during lockdown to promote connection through playful, creative shared experiences. 23 While the current pilot did not allow for participants to make art together, the activity offered a shared artistic experience, and opportunities to learn from others and feel socially connected. Vogelpoel and Jarrold suggest that art making opportunities may be a driving factor in renegotiating experiences of inclusion and social participation for individuals with VI.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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TheMystery Arts BoxProject: a qualitative exploration of the experiences, benefits, and challenges of participating in a remotely delivered art and craft project for British veterans with visual impairment

Castle¹,

Engward

Kersey

et al. 2022

BMJ Mil Health

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IntroductionThe clinical application of the arts among military personnel and veterans has been well documented, particularly in relation to service-related mental health difficulties. However, the impacts of engaging recreationally with art activities on general well-being remain underexplored and even more so among those living with visual impairment (VI). This pilot explored the artistic experiences of veterans with VI participating in a remotely delivered art and craft project during continued COVID-19 restrictions in Spring/Summer 2021.MethodsSix participants received a mystery arts box (MAB) containing a selection of materials, collated to encourage experimentation with unfamiliar techniques. Participants were asked to journal their process as they developed a final piece/pieces. They were invited to join group video calls to share work and ideas and seek guidance. Semistructured interviews were run with participants at the end of the project. Journal and interview data were thematically analysed.ResultsAnalysis identified 11 themes relating to initial and ongoing responses to the MAB and creative and journalling process. Several benefits were identified, including artistic learning, trying something new, and social, cognitive and emotional experiences. The value of the activity to participants’ lives within the context of the ongoing pandemic was also considered. Challenges were associated with the use of unfamiliar materials, impacts of sight loss and the limitations of remote delivery.ConclusionThis pilot brings to the fore the everyday artistic experience of veterans living with VI and considers the benefits, challenges and well-being implications of a remotely delivered arts activity. Findings illustrate the importance of ensuring accessibility of artistic activities to those for whom disability might limit participation and highlight the ongoing role that remotely delivered arts activities might play in meeting the social and recreational needs of individuals beyond the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 62%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

TheMystery Arts BoxProject: a qualitative exploration of the experiences, benefits, and challenges of participating in a remotely delivered art and craft project for British veterans with visual impairment

Castle¹,

Engward

Kersey

et al. 2022

BMJ Mil Health

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Also, this group did not experience the same levels of worsening mental health, so it is possible that this group did not draw on the arts so prominently to support their coping and emotion regulation [ 19 , 28 – 30 ]. Furthermore, adults living with children were more likely to maintain their engagement levels during lockdowns, suggesting their ongoing efforts in engaging in the arts with their children or using the arts as a positive coping strategy to manage their emotions [ 31 , 32 ]. Results on the pattern of engagement levels by living areas were inconclusive, further analysis is required to indicate the relative change.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Comparisons of home-based arts engagement across three national lockdowns during the COVID-19 pandemic in England

Mak

Bu²

2022

PLoS ONE

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Between March 2020 and March 2021, the United Kingdom (UK) experienced three lockdowns due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Given the evident association between arts engagement and wellbeing, this study was designed to compare the predictors and patterns of home-based arts engagement during these lockdowns. Data analysed in this study were from the UK COVID-19 Social Study run by University College London. Multinomial logistic regression was used to identify predictors of arts engagement and compare (i) respondents’ engagement levels during the first lockdown in April/May 2020 and their levels in pre-pandemic times (N = 23,086), (ii) their engagement levels during the second lockdown in November/December 2020 with their levels during the first lockdown (N = 11,481), and (iii) their engagement levels during the third lockdown in January/February 2021 with their levels during the first lockdown (N = 13,270). During first lockdown, 1 in 4 increased their arts engagement and 1 in 6 decreased it. Of those who increased, 2 in 5 maintained or further increased their engagement in subsequent lockdowns, but just 7% of those who had decreased their engagement increased it. Younger adults (aged 18–29) showed initial increases in first lockdown, whilst people who were not employed and those with a physical health condition showed decreases and people with a mental health condition showed changes during the first lockdown (both increases and decreases). Females and people with higher education showed continuous changes across the three lockdowns, with women being more likely to increase their engagement and those with higher education being less likely to decrease. People of ethnic minorities and those with higher income declined their engagement in the third lockdown. This study provides insight into levels of arts engagement across the three national lockdowns in the UK and suggests that the pandemic may have affected long-term cultural behaviours for some groups.

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“…We coded for both manifest meanings (what the parents were directly telling us) and latent meanings (in our case where examples of behaviour they described seemed to evidence psychological change in parent or child as defined by our theoretical underpinning; Braun and Clarke, 2022 ). A preliminary analysis of 10 parent interviews ( Armstrong and Ross, 2021 ) had identified initial themes so we had these in mind, but we coded the entirety of data again and introduced new codes as needed. The full data set was coded by the first author and then these codes were reviewed by the second author before they were refined further.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Experiences of Parents and Infants Using a Home-Based Art Intervention Aimed at Improving Wellbeing and Connectedness in Their Relationship

Armstrong

Ross

2022

Front. Psychol.

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During the period of COVID-19 restrictions, we offered vulnerable families with 0 to 3 year old children boxes of art resources and guided creative activities to do together at home. This paper explores families’ experiences of this intervention, highlighting their perceptions of change in wellbeing and attachment. There is a developing case for the social benefits of art, including the impact of arts on mental health and on the wellbeing of children. However, we know that social factors impact upon arts participation, and existing inequalities and mental health difficulties have been exacerbated in the context of the pandemic. This project aimed to adapt to restrictions, to provide a meaningful remote intervention, supporting parent-infant dyads to have positive interactions through art making. We sought to explore the benefits of this intervention for infants and parents with a view to understanding more about the psychological benefits of art participation and about ways to engage families into art making, as well as thinking about how best we can evidence these kinds of arts in health interventions. Preliminary findings showed promising outcomes from the art boxes and this paper brings together the full results, primarily based on interviews with sixteen parents and four referrers alongside collected feedback. We highlight potential mechanisms for change within the intervention and detail the perceived impact of the art boxes in supporting attachment. Parents felt that the art-boxes facilitated changes in their own wellbeing that would make them more available to connection, and recognised changes for babies that reflected their increased capacity to mentalise about their child. Importantly, there were also concrete changes for the dyad that represented improved connection, such as more playful time together and increased shared attention and eye contact. Our observations suggest that the quality of the parent-infant relationship benefited from home-based art intervention, and we speculate about the potential efficacy of this approach beyond the pandemic.

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Art boxes supporting parents and infants to share creative interactions at home: an art-based response to improve well-being during COVID-19 restrictions

Cited by 9 publications

References 7 publications

TheMystery Arts BoxProject: a qualitative exploration of the experiences, benefits, and challenges of participating in a remotely delivered art and craft project for British veterans with visual impairment

TheMystery Arts BoxProject: a qualitative exploration of the experiences, benefits, and challenges of participating in a remotely delivered art and craft project for British veterans with visual impairment

Comparisons of home-based arts engagement across three national lockdowns during the COVID-19 pandemic in England

The Experiences of Parents and Infants Using a Home-Based Art Intervention Aimed at Improving Wellbeing and Connectedness in Their Relationship

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