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Cited by 98Art Therapy and Mental HealthHealth disparities and outcomesCultural Industries and Urban Development

Cultural engagement and mental health: Does socio-economic status explain the association?

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Fancourt, Daisy, Steptoe, Andrew·2019·Social Science & Medicine
DOI 10.1016/j.socscimed.2019.112425PMC PMC6695288
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Abstract

There is a growing body of literature suggesting that the arts can support mental health. However, both arts participation and cultural engagement are unevenly patterned across the population, with a strong social gradient. This social gradient is also evident in mental health. So it remains unclear whether the relationship between arts engagement and mental health can in fact be explained by socio-economic status (SES). This study explores this question specifically in relation to cultural engagement (e.g. visiting museums/galleries/cinema/theatre/concerts) using data from 8780 adults aged 50 + from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing. We used a statistical triangulation approach, running three separate sets of analyses that each have different strengths and address different statistical limitations or biases. Using logistic regression, the relationship between cultural engagement and mental health was still present when including covariates relating to SES, and there was no evidence of moderation by SES either through the inclusion of interaction terms or stratification. Using propensity score matching, matching participants based on their SES, we also consistently found evidence of the relationship. Finally, using fixed-effects regression which takes account of all time-invariant factors (which include multiple aspects of SES) even if unobserved, we also found no attenuation of the relationship. Overall, this confirms previous reports that cultural engagement is linked with a lower odds of depression amongst adults aged 50 + by demonstrating a robust association in a nationally-representative sample of older adults. While SES does explain around half of the association between cultural engagement and depression, we found no evidence that it either acts as a moderator or the main explanatory factor, with independent associations maintained across all three approaches. However, the fact that higher SES is associated with more frequent engagement indicates that, in population terms, SES is still an important determinant of the salutogenic impact of culture.

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  • A number of sociodemographic disparities in arts and cultural engagement have been identified, often amplified in older age, including illness and disability, living alone, lower educational attainment, ethnic minority status, and living in areas with high levels of poverty.

    “A number of sociodemographic disparities in arts and cultural engagement have also been identified, which are often amplified in older age [14, 20]. These include illness and disability [21], living alone [21], lower educational attainment [21–23], ethnic minority status [24], and living in areas with high levels of poverty [16].”

    From Difference in predictors and barriers to arts and cultural engagement with age in the United States: A cross-sectional analysis using the Health and Retirement Study (2021) · cites this paper as [20]

    The Introduction describes a social gradient in cultural engagement, and Results > Study 1 shows disparities by education, wealth and occupational status among adults aged 50 and above (page unavailable). The cited paper does not show that these disparities are amplified in older age; the other listed disparities are attached to different citations in the citing sentence. (LLM, conf=0.86)

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Cited by

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Authors
Fancourt, D., & Steptoe, A.
Affiliations
University College London (GB)
Corresponding author
Fancourt, Daisy
ORCID
Venue
Social Science & Medicine
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Published
2019-09
Volume
236
Pages
112425
ISSN
0277-9536 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.1016/j.socscimed.2019.112425
PMC
PMC6695288
OpenAlex
W2957550088
Cited by
98
References
2
Citations by year
2026: 25 · 2025: 15 · 2024: 14 · 2023: 13 · 2022: 17 · 2021: 10 · 2020: 4
FWCI
76.97
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
Locations
  • Social Science & Medicine (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
  • UCL Discovery (University College London) (submittedVersion)
Funders
Wellcome Trust
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Conservation › Art Therapy and Mental Health
  • Social Sciences › Health › Health disparities and outcomes
  • Social Sciences › Urban Studies › Cultural Industries and Urban Development
Keywords
cultural participation, arts participation, mental health, depression, socioeconomic status, social gradient, older adults, museums and galleries, salutogenesis, English Longitudinal Study of Ageing
MeSH terms
Economic Status, Aged, Culture, Female, Humans, Longitudinal Studies, Male, Mental Health, Middle Aged, Social Class

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