10 Oct Creativity: A Key to Youth Wellbeing
In our research with families and children, mental health and wellbeing come up often. The families we work with are often oriented towards addressing the day-to-day logistics and needs within their household. However, parents are constantly reflecting on the broader state of their own wellbeing and that of their children. Likewise, the young people we speak to are not only acutely aware of their own highs and lows, but those of their family members and their household at large.
Children of all ages have a lot on their plates today. More students than ever have aspirations to attend college. Young people’s schedules are packed with extracurricular activities, part-time jobs, family commitments, and social activities. The landscape of opportunities for children to learn, grow, and achieve is ever-increasingly active and competitive. It is no surprise that many of the kids our team works with often talk about experiencing stress from the pressures of school, sports, family, and social expectations.
Across disciplines, scientists and experts have observed increasing rates of reported mental illness in younger populations. This is the reality that all industry sectors have had to reckon with over the past several years and are still learning how to address. The chaos of day-to-day life wears on individuals, as does the mental impact of the various national and global crises that have occurred over the course of the last few years. At Fluent, many of our clients are eager and motivated to design products, services, and strategies that can directly aid parents, teens, and families in navigating stress at all levels.
As a UX researcher working on many of these projects, I have had a direct role in gathering research around mental health-oriented initiatives. As a designer and anthropologist, a few key themes have become clear to me as takeaways that the broader UX and product design world should keep in mind when designing for youth and families. None have become more apparent to me than the restorative and life-giving value of helping individuals connect with their own creativity.
The ability to create and observe the creativity of others has multiple beneficial dimensions, but some of the most important elements include:
1) Creativity is multidirectional, and comes in an infinite amount of forms.
There is no one way to express yourself. Creative pursuits can be individual, but they can also help individuals find community and connect with others. Both the act of creating and consuming works created by others offer individuals the opportunity to experience joy and connection in different ways.
2) Creativity helps individuals express and connect to themselves.
Many of the individuals we speak with talk about how creativity, especially in digital spaces, helps them experiment with who they are, what they value about themselves, and how they want to be known by others. Similarly, finding a piece of art, music, or media that is resonant can be an exciting tool in self-discovery or community building.
3) Creativity helps individuals alchemize difficult emotions or life experiences by creating pause and facilitating reflection.
During difficult life experiences, many of our participants have talked about turning to art, music, or other creative outlets to give themselves space for reflection and processing time.
Many of these outcomes like multidirectional exploration, positive self expression, and processing difficult emotions, have an overall positive impact on individual mental health and wellbeing. It is no surprise that more and more of our partners and clients across industries are turning to think about how they can support creative expression for individuals. There are a myriad of other ways the mental health crisis in the U.S. can and needs to be addressed. From a product design standpoint, the potential of what can be offered to individuals in terms of creative tools, outlets, forms of engagement, and joy is limitless. Moreover, they may hold the key to making the products and services people use every day more supportive of overall wellbeing.
By Charlotte Beatty, User Experience Researcher