Abstract
The study investigates how the pattern of arts consumption (both attendance and participation) is associated with reported life satisfaction. Although a number of studies have investigated this link they have predominantly investigated arts attendance in general, or focussed on particular art forms. However the way arts are consumed, as part of a wide or narrow repertoire, and how frequently they are consumed will also have an effect. Data from a UK government survey is used to explore the relationship.
The study first applies latent class analysis to identify patterns of consumption and finds both "omnivore" (attend or particiapte in arange of events) and "univore" (attend or participate in few events) segments as well as a never, or very rarely attend segment for both arts attendance adn arts participation.
Arts attendance is found to be associated with greater wellbeing, but somewhat surprisingly breadth of repertoire seems to play a greater role than frequency of enagagement. A different pattern is seen for arts participation - here only frequent participation with a range of activities is associated with greater wellbeing.