Thriving Through the Arts: Pathways to Social Well-Being for Older Women

The arts have enriched human experiences across time and culture. Beyond their intrinsic value, a growing body of evidence suggests that engaging with the arts has numerous benefits for health and well-being. Increasingly, research on older adults suggests that arts-based interventions and engagement with arts-based leisure activities enhance states of well-being (e.g. life satisfaction, positive emotions, belonging) and reduce states of ill-being (e.g. depression, anxiety, loneliness) In this paper, we focus on the potential for the arts to contribute to women thriving in their 80s and 90s. In particular, we aim to bring awareness to the ways in which the arts can play a vital role in cultivating positive states of social well-being (e.g. social connections, social networks, social support, and belonging) and mitigating negative states of social ill-being (e.g. loneliness, social isolation). We first lay the groundwork for the relationship between the arts and health and discuss social well-being as an important facet of overall well-being. We then review research findings from four artistic domains (music, visual art, art and craft, and performing arts) and their associations with social well-being in older adulthood. Finally, we discuss potential applications of art-based interventions to support the social well-being of women in later life.