The trend for adult colouring in books took off a couple of years ago alongside the concept of mindfulness as a tool for beating anxiety.
And now it looks like the mental health benefits of putting pencil to paper have been proven, with a new study revealing that colouring in can help reduce symptoms of anxiety and depression, the Metro reports.
Researchers at New Zealand’s University of Otago asked over 100 female volunteers to either do daily colouring in or a daily logic puzzle, such as Sudoku.
The participants were also asked to complete tests to evaluate a variety of psychological metrics, including their levels of anxiety, stress, depressive symptoms, mindfulness and sense of flourishing.
And the study concluded that those who did colouring in ‘showed significantly lower levels of depressive symptoms and anxiety after the intervention, but control participants did not’, although both groups did see a boost in mindfulness.
The team now believe more research is needed into the psychological benefits of colouring in.
‘What is the mechanism responsible for the decrease in ill-being in the colouring-in group?’ said lead author Jayde Flett in the Creativity Research Journal.
‘For example, it is often suggested that colouring-in induces a mindful or meditative state and is linked to reduced activity in the amygdala or changes in brain-wave activity.
‘But we showed that mindful activity wasn’t the driving factor of change because people who did the puzzles also became more mindful.’
But co-author Dr Tamlin Conner said the findings ‘bode well for the potential psychological benefits of colouring-in’, adding that she feels ‘comfortable adding colouring-in to the growing list of creative activities for improving mental health outcomes’.
Either way, it might be time to pick up those crayons…
