EXPRESSIVE ARTS AS A MEANS OF INCREASING WELL-BEING IN CHILDREN

The purpose of this research is to discover the extent to which expressive arts increase well-being in children. Expressive arts are being defined here as theatre, dance, art, and creative writing. Well-being is defined as self-efficacy and self-worth. The project was carried out in a four-week expressive arts program designed to teach fifth grade elementary school students a variety of artistic disciplines (i.e. theatre, dance, art, and creative writing). Both before and after the workshop, the students completed measures of self-worth and self-efficacy; these measures were used to identify changes in students from the beginning of the program to the end. Although we found no statistically significant differences between the pretest and the posttest on these measures, the qualitative results are promising. Students rated this experience as highly enjoyable, with no rate less than a seven out of ten, and a mean rate of 9.36 out of ten. Students also communicated their enjoyment through written answers about how the program made them feel and what they thought of the experience