Psychological benefits of attending the theatre associated with positive affect and well-being for subscribers over age 60

Abstract

Objectives: Although late adulthood may be a time of greater well-being, optimal aging still characterizes a minority of older adults. Understanding how individuals achieve well-being across adulthood is important for intervention and social policy. We focused on how attending live theatre might enhance the well-being of a sample of 53 season ticket holders aged 60 and older. Based on a previously tested conceptual framework, we hypothesized that post-performance reports of social-cognitive experience while at the play would predict post-performance positive affect, which in turn would predict well-being.

Method: The sample was a subset of volunteers from a large survey study of theatre ticket purchasers. They completed baseline and two-year follow-up measures of well-being, and questionnaires immediately after attending seven plays across two seasons: measures of social engagement, belonging, flow, positive affect, and their reactions to the plays.

Results: We found that sense of belonging, social engagement, and flow were associated with positive affect after performances, as hypothesized. We also found that the cumulative positive affect experienced after plays in the two seasons predicted change in well-being between baseline and follow-up.

Conclusion: Our findings suggest that attending performances is a combined social, cognitive, and affective experience that transcends entertainment. Future research might investigate whether the psychological benefit model we assessed will generalize to other leisure activities that create similar engagement. The findings have implications for individuals seeking to promote their own well-being, and, possibly more importantly, for policies that support enriching cultural opportunities, particularly in the arts.

Keywords:

• Theatre
• well-being
• positive affect
• flow
• social engagement
• belonging

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank Actors Theatre of Louisville for their support of this project.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 In our grant proposal this hypothesis referred to the change in positive affect from before to after each performance as the dependent variable, but we found that collecting such pre-post performance data was not feasible within the overall design and budget of this study. We therefore modified the original hypothesis before collecting the data to reflect only post-performance positive affect.

Additional information

Funding

This project was supported by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, Grant #15-3800-7007.