Empowered by Art: Artwork Creation as a Mental Health Promoting Intervention for Mothers in Canada With Histories of Intimate Partner Violence

Stigmatized experiences, including those faced by mothers with histories of intimate partner violence (IPV), call for a disruption of conventional research methods to ensure agency and empowerment. Artwork creation is one such way to do so that may facilitate storytelling among mothers while bolstering their mental health and coping behaviors following IPV. The purpose of this quantitative, arts-based study was to assess the impact of artwork creation on the mental health and coping behaviors of mothers in Canada with histories of IPV. Twelve mothers with histories of IPV from across Canada participated in an artwork creation intervention intended to support mothers with sharing their IPV experiences. Participants completed online surveys before and after artwork creation that measured resilience, self-esteem, parental self-agency, anxiety, depression, and stress. Changes in these coping behaviors and mental health variables were investigated via correlational and repeated measures analyses. Engaging in art creation significantly increased participants’ resilience (t = 2.50, p < 0.001), self-esteem (t = 2.14, p < 0.001), and self-agency (t = 0.61, p < 0.001), and significantly reduced stress (t = −1.47, p < 0.001). These findings, which align with intersectionality, are in concordance with other arts-based research with women experiencing violence. Results from this study suggest the promising benefits of art creation for mothers navigating the complex aftermath of IPV. Integrating art-creation strategies into services for mothers impacted by IPV may help organizations offer a low-resource, broadly accessible intervention that could mitigate historical gaps in care experienced by equity-deserving groups. Further research is required to investigate the feasibility and benefit of such interventions.