Hosking, Glen (2025) Exploring the Mental Health of Australian Performing Artists: A Two-Part Study. PhD thesis, Victoria University.

Abstract

This thesis involved two studies that each examined the mental health of a population of Australian singers, dancers, actors, musicians and musical theatre performers. The first study examined the mental health vulnerabilities among a group of Australian singers, dancers, actors, and musicians, focusing specifically on anxiety, depression, alcohol consumption, and suicidality. The second study aimed to understand the lived experience of musical theatre performers and the relationships between this and their mental health and well-being. For Study One, 1031 participants (288 actors, 325 dancers, 320 musicians, 98 singers; 660 female, 369 male. 2 other) completed the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, the Paykel Suicidal Scale, The Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support Short Form, the 12 Item Health Survey and items from the National Drug Strategy Household Survey pertaining to alcohol use. The hypothesis that this group would demonstrate higher levels of depressive symptomatology when compared to normative data and that depression would be predicted by the combination of health-related quality of life (physical health and mental health), perceived social support (friends, family, significant other), frequency of alcohol consumption and industry income was supported. Similarly, the hypothesis that this group would demonstrate higher levels of anxiety compared to normative data and that this would be predicted by the combination of health-related quality of life (physical health and mental health), perceived social support, frequency of alcohol consumption and industry income was also supported. It was also predicted that substance use would be higher than population norms and that single occasion risky drinking behaviour would be predicted by the combination of depression and anxiety symptomatology, physical and mental health related quality of life and perceived social support. This was also supported. Further, the hypothesis that suicidality would be predicted by the combination of lifetime mental health diagnosis, depression and anxiety symptomatology, perceived social support and health related quality of life (physical health and mental health) was also supported. Further exploratory analysis indicated that perceived social support from family and from friends in the industry each mediated the relationship between depression and suicidality. The results point to substantial vulnerabilities in this population on all measures. Study Two investigated the lived experience of performing artists working in musical theatre (and therefore demonstrating skills as singers, actors, dancers and musicians concurrently). Sixteen professional musical theatre performers (8 female, 7 male, 1 nonbinary) engaged in interviews investigating areas such as their experiences of the industry and its culture, substance use, injury and the precarity of employment. Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis was used to analysis the data. The results revealed three main themes that captured participants’ experiences of working in the musical theatre industry: a sense of identity tied to their work, the competitive nature of the industry, and pervasive feelings of inadequacy. Several subordinate themes were identified with each main theme that related to their overall mental health. Taken together, the results of both studies are discussed, particularly pertaining to the culture of perfectionism and its relationship with anxiety and depression, the role of physical and mental health related quality of life as it pertains to injury in this population and the relationship between social support and mental health. The results from both studies point to a range of implications for this population of performing artists including but not limited to interventions and programs linked to social support, suicidality, alcohol consumption the sense of identity in the work and competitiveness.

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