UCLA

Positive mental health is an important predictor of favorable life outcomes, and arts participation is one hypothesized driver of promoting positive mental health. This four-part dissertation investigates trends in positive mental health in young adulthood, access to arts education in public secondary schools, and the relationship between performing arts and positive mental health for young adults. Papers 1 and 2 use the Population Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) to examine potential predictors and moderators of positive mental health. Paper 1 finds that most role transitions that have historically defined young adulthood (moving out of the family home, becoming the head of household, and having children) are not significantly associated with positive mental health. After controlling for time-invariant, individual characteristics, only employment status and marital status remained significant predictors. In Paper 2, results show that Black young adults who turned 18 around 2002 had substantially higher levels of positive mental health than their white or Latinx peers, but levels of positive mental health for individuals of different racial/ethnic backgrounds are converging over time. Paper 2 also finds that income is positively associated with positive mental health for white and Latinx individuals but is negatively associated with positive mental health for Black individuals. Using the Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS), Paper 3 investigates whether a federal education policy, No Child Left Behind (NCLB), led to a decrease in the availability of arts education in US public secondary schools, and examines equity of access across student race/ethnicity and income. Results suggest a general decline in the availability of arts education from 2000 to 2012, but this decline is not linked to the introduction of NCLB. Results also suggest that high-income and predominantly white schools offer more arts education than low-income schools and those serving predominantly students of color. Also using the PSID, Paper 4 examines the potential relationship between participation in performing arts and positive mental health in young adults. Using individual-level fixed effects across three waves of data per individual, this study finds that an increase in frequency of participation in performing arts is associated with an increase in positive mental health. The study also finds that people of color and low-income individuals are less likely to participate in performing arts, but when they do participate, people of color have similar, if not higher, associations between participation and positive mental health than their white peers.