Protocol for a Rapid Scoping Review of Creativity and Wellbeing
Brunel University London researchers will conduct a rapid scoping review of the evidence on ‘Creativity and Pathways to Subjective Wellbeing’. The project dates are 5/9/23-8/01/24.
We will follow established principles for systematic scoping reviews set out by the Joanna Brigg’s Institute (see Peters et al., 2020). The review will adhere to the PRISMA-ScR checklist for scoping reviews. It will map the evidence on creativity and pathways to subjective wellbeing to identify key concepts, clarify working definitions, outline key characteristics of creativity related to subjective wellbeing, and determine the scope and quality of evidence available to inform policy, practice or future systematic review work.
Through the scoping review the research team will synthesise findings on mechanisms of change, drivers and barriers to realising wellbeing improvements through creativity. Drawing on realist strategies for building evidence, we will identify the psycho-sociological mechanisms (M) that elicit wellbeing outcomes (O) in specific contexts (C) in which creativity occurs (Davidoff, 2019; De Brun and McAuliffe, 2020; de Souza, 2013; Pawson and Tilley, 1997). In this way we will explore the following context-mechanism-outcome configuration (CMOc) of the creativity-culture-wellbeing relationship: (i) context (i.e. local culture, space/place, delivery practices), (ii) mechanisms of wellbeing (i.e. the underlying forces/structures such as behaviours, brain mechanisms, motivations/incentives, agency, community norms, resourcing, politics), and (iii) outcomes (i.e. wellbeing improvements and negative impacts).
We will produce a visualisation of the key pathways or Context-Mechanism-Outcome configurations in a Pathways Model diagram, or similar visual representation. Our work will be framed by a coproduction approach and we will share and discuss our methods, findings and outputs with the WWCW and the Advisory Group (AG). We present a protocol for the rapid scoping review below. This is for discussion and refinement with the WWCW and AG.
