Many college students suffer from high stress and anxiety levels due to course workload and entering the world of adulthood. Studies suggest that engaging in artistic activities could be a simple way to combat the daily stressors college students experience. This study examined the effect that artistic activities, such as painting, and coloring a mandala, had on stress and anxiety reduction, as well as mood. Participants were Rhode Island College students between the ages of 18-25. Participants experienced the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST) in the lab before artistic or control activity. Following the stressor, participants were randomly assigned to one of three groups, free form painting, coloring a mandala, or reading (control group). During the data collection, self-assessment scales of affect and anxiety, physiological measures (i.e. cortisol levels and heart rate), and short answer responses were collected from participants. Results showed that students reported significant increases in positive affect (PA) and significant decreases in anxiety in both the painting and color conditions compared with the control condition. The remaining measures, negative affect (NA), cortisol, and heart rate (HR) did not show significant differences between art conditions and the control. This research suggests that college students can use art as an activity to reduce anxiety levels and boost positive affect.
