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Recently, the notion of arts as therapy has been of growing interest to sociologists. The aim of this article is to evaluate community-based arts funded projects in terms of their priorities and effectiveness and discuss possibilities for enabling Arts on Prescription schemes in Malta. Thematically, this article explores discourse on the potential of the arts on promoting well-being. Methodologically, this article draws on primary data collected from focus groups, interviews and an online survey with project leaders and artists of funded arts projects targeting mental health, disability or old age. Specifically, this research evaluates all national funded community-based arts projects in Malta between 2014 to 2018 under a national scheme of the President’s Award for Creativity fund, managed by the national Arts Council Malta. Analysis of this data was used to inform the new national cultural policy on the implantation of the Arts on Prescription scheme in Malta.

This article examines changes in the degree of personal agency in young women, with post-compulsory education, in the last 50 years in a Southern European reality. It explores strategies of negotiation and resistance to social and cultural conditions, such as restrictive legislation, in a relatively traditional context. The arguments brought forward are positioned broadly within a discourse of individualization-on how women are more than ever devising their lives on their own free-will. There are various structural and cultural changes that had direct impact on the changes in females' personal agency. This article focuses on three of them-the influence of the church, restrictive legislation, and the expansion and extension of the educational system. The data drawn on for this article are taken from interviews conducted in Malta, with two generations of women who were in post-compulsory education in their youth, yet experienced their youth 50 years apart. The implications brought forward include a need for assessing how female agency operates in a relatively more traditional setting in a paradoxical manner. Their degree of female agency demonstrates complex strategies of accommodation and negotiation in line with socioeconomic and cultural conditions.

This paper examines the sociological implications of personal anxiety for youth in tertiary education. The arguments brought forward are positioned broadly within a discourse on individualisationon how youth today are devising their lives on their own free-will and experiencing anxiety due to self-reliance. Various socio-economic and cultural conditions have a direct impact on their degree of anxiety. This paper focuses on three of themchanges in the educational system, employment prospects and personal debts. This paper analyses increased anxiety in youth, outlined by various studies, and how it transcends in southern Europe. The data drawn on for this paper are taken from interviews conducted in Malta. The implications brought forward include the need for a more detailed exploration of the familial support network and its work in reducing anxiety. Youth experience a kind of 'institutional individualisation' -Their reflexive deliberations leading to angst are cushioned by their familial support network.

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