Cherry Gao '27
Art offers an opportunity for channeling thoughts and emotions through a creative outlet, which not only grounds us to the present but also offers a temporary escape from current stressors. This is the core idea of art therapy: being expressive and creative in a supportive setting. Yet can art-making benefit everyone equally regardless of age and past experiences?
To answer this question, researchers from Drexel's College of Nursing and Health Professions conducted and published a study in Art Therapy under the title "Reduction of Cortisol Levels and Participants' Responses Following Art Making." Girija Kaimal, EdD, assistant professor of creative arts therapies, has assisted the study.
In the study, Kaimal's invited 39 adults, ranging from 18 to 59 years old, to participate in 45 minutes of artmaking. Cortisol levels, an indication of stress measured through saliva samples, were taken before and after the art-making period – the higher one’s cortisol levels are, the more stressed they are.
Materials were laid out for participants, including markers, paper, modeling clay, and collage materials. Participants could use any of the materials to create any type of art they desired. Additionally, of all the participants, just under half were said to have limited experiences in making art. Researchers found that 75 percent of the participants' cortisol levels lowered during their 45 minutes of making art.
Interestingly, 25 percent of participants were reported to have increased cortisol levels after 45 minutes, which wasn’t necessarily a negative indicator of stress – researchers explained that “It could've been that the artmaking resulted in a state of arousal and/or engagement in the study's participants.”
However, while there were some variations in cortisol levels, there was no correlation between past art experiences and lower levels of cortisol.
On the other hand, researchers have found a weak correlation between age and lower levels of cortisol–younger participants consistently displayed lower cortisol levels after art making. Kaimal reached a conclusion that “younger people are developmentally still figuring out ways to deal with stress and challenges, while older individuals -- just from having lived life and being older -- might have more strategies to problem-solve and manage stress more effectively.” With this in mind, Kamal believed that art making could assist young people to release stress as they deal with the overwhelming load of work in academia.
Researchers reached the conclusion that while art-making benefits younger people more in distress, it is equally advantageous for everyone regardless of past experiences in art. Kaimal summarized her findings as “both surprising and unsurprising.” It was surprising because she understood that the main purpose of art therapy is to reduce stress, but due to her initial prediction: “perhaps the effects would be stronger for those with prior experience,” the findings were surprising (Otto, 2016).
In light of this experiment, Kaimal also planned to study how art affects end-of-life patients and their caregivers, with her ultimate goal of exploring art’s impact on psychological well being.
Works Cited
Otto, Frank. “At Any Skill Level, Making Art Reduces Stress Hormones.” ScienceDaily, June 15, 2016. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/06/160615134946.htm.
Otto, Frank. “Making Art Activates Brain’s Reward Pathway.” ScienceDaily, June 13, 2017. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/06/170613120531.htm.