Colouring books obsession has not just become a fad for adults but has also spurred interest among all age groups and gave rise to phenomenal sales in the past few years.
Colouring books obsession taking art to new heights
Data from Nielsen BookScan reveals that the demand for adult colouring books started to surge last year when they reported a staggering volume of 12 million copies sold where there was only 1 million sold back in 2014.
The rising trend can be attributed to many adults seeing the benefits of de-stressing with the activity and finding it fun and engaging.
Colouring books versus art
While some researchers agree that there are indeed benefits and disadvantages over the resurgence of colouring book activities, they also suggest that it is better to draw than colour to enhance creativity.
Many people often associate early memorable experiences during childhood about colouring books and other childhood pastimes.
But researchers, including some parents, are asking if there are in any educational or health benefits that this popular pastime could offer, considering that no extensive studies have yet been conducted on this.
“I would say that for a child, colouring books are more likely to engage children’s creativity and active enthusiasm,” says Dr. Richard House, a psychologist and book author. “Whereas for adults they are far more likely to have a stress-reducing effect, giving adults a pleasant vehicle for escaping, for a short time at least, from the manic, time-poor lives that we increasingly lead.”
Good stress reducer
“Expressing ourselves through art can significantly lower levels of the stress hormone cortisol in our bodies,” says study co-author Girija Kaimal, assistant professor of creative arts therapies at Drexel University.
“One of the things that many adults in the study commented on was that they have had no opportunities to engage in art-making as adults,” says Kaimal. “This is an unfortunate and sad part of our current Western and modern life. We are separated from the everyday arts activities we engaged in when we were a less modernized society.”
The study involved some 39 adult participants with ages ranging from 18 to 25 and were asked to do an activity involving colour, clay modelling or create art collages for 45 minutes.
They discovered that cortisol levels of 75% of the volunteers dropped during the period of the art session, resulting to less stimulus for stress in the brain.
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