Sonke Jill, Pesata Virginia, Colverson Aaron, Morgan-Daniel Jane, Rodriguez Alexandra K, Carroll Gray Davidson, Burch Shanaé, Abraham Abel, Akram Seher, Marjani Stefany, Belden Cassandra, Karim Hiba
Center for Arts in Medicine, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, United States.
Memory and Aging Center, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, United States.
Front Public Health. 2025 May 9;13:1589693. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2025.1589693. eCollection 2025.
Arts and cultural strategies have increasingly been engaged by the public health sector to enhance social cohesion, health, and well-being, as well as to address the significant health risks posed by social isolation and loneliness. While numerous studies document relationships between arts participation and social cohesion or well-being, few studies have investigated the relationships between all three and, to date, no evidence synthesis has been conducted on this topic.
To address this gap, this integrative review aimed to identify, describe, and synthesize research on arts participation, social cohesion, and well-being in a community context by addressing the question: what is the evidence base regarding relationships between arts participation, social cohesion, and well-being? Literature searches were conducted using 10 databases, and analyses included descriptive statistics, thematic analysis and content-mechanism-outcomes analysis.
A total of 18 articles - 16 original research articles and two reviews - from 12 countries met inclusion criteria. Results provide insights on modes and forms of arts participation used to address social cohesion and well-being and suggest that SC may function as a mechanism for enhancing community well-being. Themes highlight the value of physical engagement in community spaces and culturally-rooted programming, the virtuous cycle of commitment and benefit that can be cultivated by co-creation and social relationships, and how social cohesion can serve as a mechanism for enhancing well-being.
This study's insights related to how the arts can build social cohesion and, in turn, enhance well-being can guide design of community-based programs. Prospective studies are needed to test these relationships as well as the potential role of social cohesion as a mechanism for building well-being in communities through arts participation.
公共卫生部门越来越多地采用艺术和文化策略来增强社会凝聚力、促进健康和福祉，并应对社会孤立和孤独所带来的重大健康风险。虽然众多研究记录了艺术参与与社会凝聚力或福祉之间的关系，但很少有研究探讨这三者之间的关系，而且迄今为止，尚未针对该主题进行证据综合分析。
为填补这一空白，本整合性综述旨在通过回答以下问题，识别、描述和综合关于社区背景下艺术参与、社会凝聚力和福祉的研究：关于艺术参与、社会凝聚力和福祉之间的关系，证据基础是什么？使用10个数据库进行文献检索，分析包括描述性统计、主题分析和内容-机制-结果分析。
来自12个国家的总共18篇文章——16篇原创研究文章和2篇综述——符合纳入标准。结果提供了关于用于促进社会凝聚力和福祉的艺术参与模式和形式的见解，并表明社会凝聚力可能作为增强社区福祉的一种机制。主题突出了在社区空间中的身体参与和基于文化的项目的价值、通过共同创造和社会关系可以培养的承诺与受益的良性循环，以及社会凝聚力如何作为增强福祉的一种机制。
本研究关于艺术如何建立社会凝聚力进而增强福祉的见解可为基于社区的项目设计提供指导。需要进行前瞻性研究来检验这些关系以及社会凝聚力作为通过艺术参与在社区中建立福祉的一种机制的潜在作用。
