Abstracts
Abstract
Although Canada is a popular destination for immigrants, studies of the mental health of immigrant women in Canada have shown some of migration’s potential negative impacts. These studies also showcase how social support through community engagement can improve and maintain mental health by reducing immigrant women’s hopelessness and boosting their resilience. Additionally, because it promotes self-expression and self-confidence, engagement with art can be beneficial for health outcomes. Community arts programs serve as a space for creating artworks and exchanging social support and can have a positive psychological influence on participants. For instance, community arts programs can facilitate participants’ self-expression and the development of new friendships and artistic skills. Despite the existence of diverse community arts programs across Canada, there are few Canadian-focused scholarly studies investigating how engagement with these programs may contribute to participants’ mental health. In this paper, I investigate the association between engagement with art and its mental health–related outcomes among immigrant women in Canada. To explore this relationship, I provide a review of the scholarly literature on artmaking and mental health among immigrant women in Canada and assess how community art programs may impact their mental health by offering opportunities for social support exchanges. This paper argues that community art programs foster space for promoting mental health among immigrant women, and provides suggestions for researchers, mental health professionals, settlement service providers, and policy-makers in the field of migration.
Keywords:
- mental health,
- social support,
- art,
- community art,
- immigrant women,
- migrant women
Résumé
Bien que le Canada soit une destination populaire pour les immigrants, des études sur la santé mentale des femmes immigrantes au Canada ont montré certains des impacts négatifs potentiels de la migration. Ces études montrent également comment le soutien social grâce à l’engagement communautaire peut améliorer et maintenir la santé mentale en réduisant le désespoir des femmes immigrantes et en renforçant leur résilience. De plus, parce qu’il favorise l’expression de soi et la confiance en soi, l’engagement dans l’art peut être bénéfique pour la santé. Les programmes artistiques communautaires servent d’espace de création d’oeuvres d’art et d’échange de soutien social et peuvent avoir une influence psychologique positive sur les participants. Par exemple, les programmes artistiques communautaires peuvent faciliter l’expression personnelle des participants et le développement de nouvelles amitiés et compétences artistiques. Malgré l’existence de divers programmes artistiques communautaires à travers le Canada, il existe peu d’études scientifiques axées sur le Canada examinant comment la participation à ces programmes peut contribuer à la santé mentale des participants. Dans cet article, j’étudie l’association entre l’engagement envers l’art et ses conséquences en matière de santé mentale chez les femmes immigrantes au Canada. Pour explorer cette relation, je propose une recension des écrits scientifique sur la création artistique et la santé mentale chez les femmes immigrantes au Canada et j’évalue comment les programmes d’art communautaire peuvent avoir un impact sur leur santé mentale en offrant des opportunités d’échanges de soutien social. Cet article soutient que les programmes d’art communautaire favorisent un espace de promotion de la santé mentale chez les femmes immigrantes et propose des suggestions aux chercheurs, aux professionnels de la santé mentale, aux prestataires de services d’établissement et aux décideurs politiques dans le domaine de la migration.
Mots-clés :
- santé mentale,
- soutien social,
- art,
- art communautaire,
- femmes immigrantes,
- femmes migrantes
Appendices
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