Imagination Studio, an arts intervention for college students with depression: changes in mental health, well-being, creativity, and flexible thinking

Background: Depression is highly prevalent among college students. Arts-based interventions represent a promising avenue to improve college student mental health. Method: We examined mental health and potential mechanistic effects of cognitive flexibility and creative idea-generation in 28 college students with depression symptoms before, after, and six months after completing Imagination Studio–a novel, arts-based intervention. Results: Immediately post-intervention, significant changes included: (1) reductions in depression and anxiety; (2) increases in well-being; (3) improvements in creative performance and cognitive flexibility. Improvements in all measures except for creative performance were maintained six months later. Changes in mental health were not generally associated with cognitive changes. Conclusions: Results suggest that an arts-based intervention can improve mental health in college students, while the mechanistic roles of creative ideation and cognitive flexibility remain unclear. Larger samples and randomized control designs are necessary to further evaluate mechanisms behind arts-based interventions for college students.