Arts engagement and self‐esteem in children: results from a propensity score matching analysis
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Self‐esteem is regarded as vital to children's social and cognitive development and emotional well‐being. To date, a few studies have suggested that arts activities can improve self‐esteem in young people. However, such studies mainly focused on small, nonrepresentative samples. In this study, data from 6209 children included in the United Kingdom Millennium Cohort Study were analyzed using propensity score matching to investigate the association between children's arts engagement ((1) listening to or playing music; (2) drawing, painting, or making things; and (3) reading for enjoyment) and self‐esteem at age 11. All three activities were associated with higher levels of self‐esteem when matching for all identified demographic, socioeconomic, and familial confounders. Additionally, the relationship was more prominent when children engaged in these activities with their parents on a regular basis. However, there was no clear evidence that ability in either music or arts activities moderated the relationship with self‐esteem, although English language ability may moderate the association between reading and self‐esteem. These results suggest that initiatives to promote arts engagement in children may provide a practical and efficient way to improve children's self‐esteem. This is the key given self‐esteem in childhood tends to decline as children enter adolescence, yet is linked to lifelong development and well‐being.
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Reading and mental health are not randomly distributed in the population, making associations in observational data vulnerable to confounding.
“However, reading and mental health are not randomly distributed in the population (Mak & Fancourt, 2019), making associations in observational data vulnerable to confounding.”
From A counterfactual and random intercept cross‐lagged panel analysis of the effects of reading frequency on adolescent mental health in a large longitudinal study (2026) · cites this paper as Mak & Fancourt, 2019
The Introduction (page unavailable) says children’s arts engagement is socially patterned and that demographic differences can confound its association with self-esteem; the paper includes reading among those activities. This supports the concern about confounding in observational data, but it does not establish that mental health itself is nonrandomly distributed across the population, and its analysis concerns children’s self-esteem rather than mental health broadly. (LLM, conf=0.84)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredPrevious counterfactual analysis studies have identified an effect of reading for pleasure on mental health up to early adolescence.
“Previous counterfactual analysis studies have identified an effect of reading for pleasure on mental health up to early adolescence (Mak & Fancourt, 2019, 2020a).”
From A counterfactual and random intercept cross‐lagged panel analysis of the effects of reading frequency on adolescent mental health in a large longitudinal study (2026) · cites this paper as Mak & Fancourt, 2019
The Methods (Statistics) describe counterfactual propensity-score matching, and the Discussion reports that reading most days of the week was positively related to self-esteem in children aged 11. But the paper measures self-esteem rather than mental health broadly and describes a relationship, not an established causal effect; it also says the reading relationship was present only when parents regularly engaged in reading with their children. (LLM, conf=0.86)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredAnalysing the impact of reading for pleasure on mental health must take into account confounding due to the social patterning of reading for pleasure.
“As noted; however, analysing the impact of reading for pleasure on mental health must take into account confounding due to the social patterning of reading for pleasure (Mak & Fancourt, 2019).”
From A counterfactual and random intercept cross‐lagged panel analysis of the effects of reading frequency on adolescent mental health in a large longitudinal study (2026) · cites this paper as Mak & Fancourt, 2019
The Introduction (page unavailable) says children’s arts engagement is socially patterned and that demographic differences can confound estimates of its relationship with self-esteem. The paper includes reading for enjoyment among those activities, but it studies self-esteem in children, not mental health outcomes or readers generally. (LLM, conf=0.84)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredUsing propensity score matching in the Millennium Cohort Study, Mak and Fancourt (2019) found that reading for pleasure at age 11 was associated with higher self-esteem.
“Using a propensity score matching approach in data from the Millennium Cohort Study, Mak and Fancourt (2019) found that reading for pleasure at age 11 was associated with higher self‐esteem.”
From A counterfactual and random intercept cross‐lagged panel analysis of the effects of reading frequency on adolescent mental health in a large longitudinal study (2026) · cites this paper as Mak and Fancourt (2019)
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Arts and cultural participation among 17-year-olds
ESRI, & Smyth, E. (2020) · doi:10.26504/rs103 · Cited by 7 · see citing works
Murray, A., Errington, P., Yang, Y., Wright, H., Mirman, D., Obsuth, I., Booth, T., Ribeaud, D., & Eisner, M. (2026) · JCPP Advances · doi:10.1002/jcv2.70075 · Cited by 4 · see citing works
- Authors
- Mak, H. W., & Fancourt, D.
- Affiliations
- University College London (GB)
- Corresponding author
- Fancourt, Daisy
- Venue
- Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 2019-04-15
- Volume
- 1449
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 36-45
- ISSN
- 0077-8923 (ISSN-L)
- 1749-6632
- PMC
- PMC6767447
- OpenAlex
- W2938410791
- Cited by
- 48
- References
- 5
- Citations by year
- 2026: 6 · 2025: 9 · 2024: 8 · 2023: 11 · 2022: 8 · 2021: 3 · 2020: 2 · 2019: 1
- FWCI
- 69.03
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- UCL Discovery (University College London) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- Wellcome Trust (205407/Z/16/Z)
- Arts and Humanities Research Council (AH/P005888/1)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Visual Arts and Performing Arts › Art Education and Development
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Conservation › Art Therapy and Mental Health
- Social Sciences › Safety Research › Youth Development and Social Support
- Keywords
- arts participation, self-esteem, children, drawing and painting, reading for pleasure, parental involvement, Millennium Cohort Study, English proficiency, child development, well-being
- MeSH terms
- Child Health, Art, Child, Female, United Kingdom, Humans, Male, Music, Parent-Child Relations, Parents, Quality of Life, Self Concept, Propensity Score
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