This study empirically examined whether stress mediated the relationship between
middle-aged women's cultural and artistic activities and psychological well-being based
on socioemotional selectivity theory and motivational states theory. In addition, this
study examined whether extroverted personality moderated the relationship between
appreciation and participation in cultural and artistic activities and stress. The subjects
were 257 women aged 40 to 59 years, and the analysis was performed by structural
equation modeling. The results are as follows: First, the viewing of cultural and
artistic activities negatively affected stress and positively affected psychological
well-being through the full mediation of stress. The participation in cultural and
artistic activities could not affect stress, and stress had a negative effect on
psychological well-being. Second, among individual personality traits, extroversion had
no moderating effect between viewing of cultural and artistic activities and stress,
but it had a moderating effect between participation in cultural and artistic activities
and stress. This study investigates how middle-aged women's cultural and artistic
activities show a positive effect on psychological well-being and, at the same time,
provides various theoretical and practical implications by showing which cultural and
artistic activities enhance the positive effect. These results lead to the conclusion
that the viewing of cultural and artistic activities by middle-aged women reduce the
stress and enhance psychological well-being. Therefore, it takes a lot of effort to
develop various cultural and artistic contents capable of reducing the stress of
middle-aged women and enhancing psychological well-being. Furthermore, it is
expected that the results of this study can be used from the perspective of designing
participatory cultural and artistic activities.