Objective: Whether creating art can increase positive emotions, reduce negative emotions and decrease anxiety in college students are the questions addressed in this thesis. As today's students face challenges to their academic studies, social interactions and perspective on their future as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, creating art can potentially help them overcome these challenges. If as hypothesized, making art can enhance positive emotions, lessen negative emotions and reduce anxiety, then these findings support the creation of drop-in art centers on college campuses. Method: A one-week study was conducted which included four consecutive days of 30 minutes of art creation. Nineteen students participated in the study. First, participants completed quantitative measures of negative and positive emotions, anxiety (state and trait), resilience, self-esteem and hope and a narrative measure about expectations for the four day art making experience. Then, the participants engaged in 30 minutes of art creation on four consecutive days using a pencil and paper. Each day, the participants completed a shorter version of the quantitative measures presented at the beginning of the study, and answered a narrative question about their feelings regarding creating art. When the four days of art creation was completed, the participants were asked to fill out the same quantitative assessments as on the first day of the study and answered narrative questions describing their feelings about their art project and whether anything significant had happened in their life during the week. Results: Participants' intensity of anger, sadness, dissatisfaction with self, shyness and fear decreased after the art creation days. Moreover, levels of hope increased and levels of trait anxiety decreased after the art creation days. Regression analysis showed that a more intense experience of positive emotions after creating art on Day 1 of the daily part of the study predicted lower levels of dissatisfaction with self and sadness after the four art creation days that completed the study. Furthermore, the importance of the positive emotions from creating art on Day 1 was shown not only by the quantitative results, but also from analyzing the participants' narrative answers which, for instance, showed a large number of references to feeling relaxed and peaceful after Day 1. Conclusion: The study results demonstrate the importance of taking that initial step and beginning to create art to the well-being of students. Moreover, the positive emotions sparked by the first day of art creation seem to have had an 'undoing effect' on levels of dissatisfaction with self and sadness by the end of the study, resulting in a decrease in the levels of these negative emotions. Thus, this study provides important and persuasive support for the introduction of drop-in art centers on college campuses to improve student mental health and well-being.
"},{"label":"Degree","value":["Bachelor of Arts with Departmental Honors"]},{"label":"Author-supplied Keywords","value":["Emotions","College students","Creating art"]},{"label":"Administrative Note","value":"Drupal Node ID: 24128