SUMMARY FOR ARTICLE

The study objectives: assess different patterns and experiences of youth involvement in the arts and examine these in relation to demographic characteristics of young people; identify successful and sustained engagement in the arts and evaluate factors which are perceived to inhibit and facilitate it; analyse young peoples attitudes to youth arts participation; highlight perceived need and opportunities in the arts which remain unfulfilled. with regard to social class it should be noted that interviewees from social class iv and v were over-represented in the school years - group. their lower showing could be attributed to a tendency for m interviewees in this group to be aware of the higher standards associa with being imaginative or creative yet consider that their own involvem in such activities does not approximate those standards and criteria addition there were signs that more young people in this group had instrumental applied and functional perception of imaginative or creati activities preferring to see creativity which was often equated w problem-solving outlets in technology and design rather than engl and the arts. the only point of significance which the disaggregated results by ethnicity produced was that white europeans were more likely to have a multiple perspective of the arts per cent compared with per cent of ethnic minorities. so in general attaching significance to the arts increased with gcse attainment though as with earlier u-shaped relationships those with no gcses did not fit the pattern exactly notably the per cent of non-gcse interviewees who answered very important.