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The purpose of this study was to explore perceptions of parenting and parent-child activities in American families with children aged 0–16 after social distance measures were put in place. Through an online questionnaire, we examined the extent to which parental role, age, education, and perceptions of work productivity impacted parent perceptions of six parenting categories (positive parenting, inconsistent discipline, positive relationships, positive emotions, self-efficacy, and routine management) during the initial months of the pandemic. We also examined children’s participation in extracurricular activities, before and after measures of social distancing were implemented. Perceptions of parenting did not differ based on parental roles, education and age, but work productivity had an impact on parents’ perceptions of their own feelings and emotions. Parents who described themselves as highly productive reported higher scores for positive emotions, suggesting a link between work and parental wellbeing. A discrepancy was found between the activities that parents liked and disliked doing with their children, with homework and academic activities being the least liked of all. Children’s participation in extracurricular activities was also significantly reduced after social distancing was mandated, with arts activities (music in particular) suffering the least amount of reduction. Findings are discussed considering earlier studies on parenting during COVID-19 and concerted cultivation. Implications for future parenting research are outlined.HighlightsOnline questionnaire with American parents during the initial months of the pandemic.Parents who perceived themselves as more productive at work showed higher ratings for positive emotions.Homework and academic activities were rated as the least-liked activities that parents did with their children after social distancing was mandated.There was a significant reduction of extracurricular activities following “safer at home” measures, with the arts (music) suffering the least amount of reduction.

Based on a comprehensive analysis of 39 studies published in academic journals in the past decade (2010–2020), this article discusses the strengths of current research and the challenges that lie ahead for researchers interested in conducting longitudinal research on music education and child development. Among the strengths of the reviewed studies are multi-year projects, diverse study samples and programs, and a wide range of areas of interest—cognitive and neural to socioemotional and musical development. Challenges for future research are described in relation to three main perspectives. The methodological, the first perspective, tackles future challenges in terms of research approaches, population sampling, randomization, replication, and the lack of cross-cultural longitudinal research. The second perspective, the conceptual-philosophical, focuses on how children, music, and music education have been defined—in deliberate or tacit ways—in longitudinal works, and their implications for both research and practice. The third perspective, the political, focuses on the extent to which research on the effects of music education may be interpreted by some as promoting a neoliberal educational agenda. I conclude the article with suggestions for future research.

This study aims to investigate the development of pitch-matching, rhythmic entrainment, and socioemotional skills in children who received formal music instruction and other non-music based after school programs. Eighty-three children, averaging 6.81 years old at baseline, were enrolled in either a music, sports, or no after-school program and followed over four years. The music program involved formal and systematic instruction in music theory, instrumental technique, and performance. Most control participants had no music education; however, in some instances, participants received minimal music education at school or at church. Musical development was measured using a pitch-matching and drumming-based rhythmic entrainment task. Sharing behavior was measured using a variation of the dictator game, and empathy was assessed using three different assessments: the Index of Empathy for Children and Adolescence (trait empathy), the Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test (theory of mind), and a Fiction Emotion-Matching task (state empathy). Results revealed no time-related associations in pitch-matching ability; however, formal music instruction improved pitch-matching relative to controls. On the contrary, improvements in rhythmic entrainment were best explained by age-related changes rather than music instruction. This study also found limited support for a positive association between formal music instruction and socioemotional skills. That is, individuals with formal music instruction exhibited improved emotion-matching relative to those with sports training. In terms of general socioemotional development, children’s trait-level affective empathy did not improve over time, while sharing, theory of mind, and state empathy did. Additionally, pitch-matching and rhythmic entrainment did not reliably predict any socioemotional measures, with associations being trivial to small. While formal music instruction benefitted pitch-matching ability and emotion-matching to an audiovisual stimulus, it was not a significant predictor of rhythmic entrainment or broader socioemotional development. These findings suggest that the transfer of music training may be most evident in near or similar domains.

Collective music making has been associated with the emergence of prosocial behaviors in children and adults. Yet, the associations between participation in early childhood music education programs and prosocial skills in young children remain elusive. The purpose of this exploratory study was to examine how children with varied amounts of music participation—in a formal program and in the home—performed in two prosocial tasks (i.e., instrumental helping and sharing) and how their parents rated their prosocial tendencies and interests for music. Thirty-six children (ages between 3 and 4 years) with varied amounts of participation in an early childhood music program completed prosocial tasks of instrumental helping and sharing. Results indicated that there were no significant age or sex differences in children’s prosocial responses. Instrumental sharing was positively correlated with time spent in the music program. Sharing scores, in turn, correlated with children’s active musical participation and parental prosocial ratings. These findings are discussed in light of theories of musical and prosocial development in childhood.

Prosocial behaviors and executive function are staples of child development. Engagement in music has been associated with enhanced prosocial behaviors and executive function skills in children and youth. Yet, research concerning the role of formal music programs in the development of these important behaviors and skills remains elusive. The aim of this exploratory study was to investigate the role of a 5-week music program on prosocial behaviors (instrumental helping and sharing) and executive function skills (cognitive flexibility and working memory/inhibition control) of 103 kindergarten children from two public schools in a large urban center in the United States, serving predominantly Latinx children from underserved communities. Our data suggested that the short music program positively influenced children's cognitive flexibility, but not working memory, nor prosocial skills (sharing and helping). Findings are discussed in light of earlier studies, methodological issues, and limitations, and in relation to developmental and cultural issues surrounding child participants. Implications for future research and practice are outlined.

Inhibitory control, the ability to suppress an immediate dominant response, has been shown to predict academic and career success, socioemotional wellbeing, wealth, and physical health. Learning to play a musical instrument engages various sensorimotor processes and draws on cognitive capacities including inhibition and task switching. While music training has been shown to benefit cognitive and language skills, its impact on inhibitory control remains inconclusive. As part of an ongoing 5-year longitudinal study, we investigated the effects of music training on the development of inhibitory control and its neural underpinnings with a population of children (starting at age 6) from underserved communities. Children involved in music were compared with children involved in sports and children not involved in any systematic after-school program. Inhibition was measured using a delayed gratification, flanker, and Color-Word Stroop task, which was performed both inside and outside of an MRI scanner. We established that there were no pre-existing differences in cognitive capacities among the groups at the onset. In the delayed gratification task, beginning after 3 years of training, children with music training chose a larger, delayed reward in place of a smaller, immediate reward compared to the control group. In the flanker task, children in the music group, significantly improved their accuracy after 3 and 4 years of training, whereas such improvement in the sport and control group did not reach significance. There were no differences among the groups on behavioral measures of Color-Word Stroop task at any time point. As for differences in brain function, we have previously reported that after 2 years, children with music training showed significantly greater bilateral activation in the pre-SMA/SMA, ACC, IFG, and insula during the Color-Word Stroop task compared to the control group, but not compared to the sports group (Sachs et al., 2017). However, after 4 years, we report here that differences in brain activity related to the Color-Word Stroop task between musicians and the other groups is only observed in the right IFG. The results suggest that systematic extracurricular programs, particularly music-based training, may accelerate development of inhibitory control and related brain networks earlier in childhood.Inhibitory control, the ability to suppress an immediate dominant response, has been shown to predict academic and career success, socioemotional wellbeing, wealth, and physical health. Learning to play a musical instrument engages various sensorimotor processes and draws on cognitive capacities including inhibition and task switching. While music training has been shown to benefit cognitive and language skills, its impact on inhibitory control remains inconclusive. As part of an ongoing 5-year longitudinal study, we investigated the effects of music training on the development of inhibitory control and its neural underpinnings with a population of children (starting at age 6) from underserved communities. Children involved in music were compared with children involved in sports and children not involved in any systematic after-school program. Inhibition was measured using a delayed gratification, flanker, and Color-Word Stroop task, which was performed both inside and outside of an MRI scanner. We established that there were no pre-existing differences in cognitive capacities among the groups at the onset. In the delayed gratification task, beginning after 3 years of training, children with music training chose a larger, delayed reward in place of a smaller, immediate reward compared to the control group. In the flanker task, children in the music group, significantly improved their accuracy after 3 and 4 years of training, whereas such improvement in the sport and control group did not reach significance. There were no differences among the groups on behavioral measures of Color-Word Stroop task at any time point. As for differences in brain function, we have previously reported that after 2 years, children with music training showed significantly greater bilateral activation in the pre-SMA/SMA, ACC, IFG, and insula during the Color-Word Stroop task compared to the control group, but not compared to the sports group (Sachs et al., 2017). However, after 4 years, we report here that differences in brain activity related to the Color-Word Stroop task between musicians and the other groups is only observed in the right IFG. The results suggest that systematic extracurricular programs, particularly music-based training, may accelerate development of inhibitory control and related brain networks earlier in childhood.

The Routledge Companion to Interdisciplinary Studies in Singing, Volume I: Development introduces the many voices necessary to better understand the act of singing-a complex human behavior that emerges without deliberate training. Presenting research from the social sciences and humanities alongside that of the natural sciences and medicine alike, this companion explores the relationship between hearing sensitivity and vocal production, in turn identifying how singing is integrated with sensory and cognitive systems while investigating the ways we test and measure singing ability and development. Contributors consider the development of singing within the context of the entire lifespan, focusing on its cognitive, social, and emotional significance in four parts: Musical, Historical and Scientific Foundations Perception and Production Multimodality Assessment In 2009, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada funded a seven-year major collaborative research initiative known as Advancing Interdisciplinary Research in Singing (AIRS). Together, global researchers from a broad range of disciplines addressed three challenging questions: How does singing develop in every human being? How should singing be taught and used to teach? How does singing impact wellbeing? Across three volumes, The Routledge Companion to Interdisciplinary Studies in Singing consolidates the findings of each of these three questions, defining the current state of theory and research in the field. Volume I: Development tackles the first of these three questions, tracking development from infancy through childhood to adult years.

The following is a commentary on Vazquez’ two-part study of mothers’ everyday uses of music and their relationships to the quality of mother-child interaction and bonding. The commentary considers how Vazquez’ findings are linked to the experiences and meanings of motherhood in modern times, including the stressors and pressures that many women experience as they begin their journeys as new mothers. The commentary presents three main points: the necessity to listen to maternal voices, the need to diversify study samples, and the recognition that mothers are a diverse group.

In this study, we tracked the development of rhythmic entrainment, prosociality, and theory of mind skills in children attending music and sports programs and in a control group over the course of three years. Forty-five children (mean age at onset = 81 months) drummed in two contextual conditions – alone and social – completed the Reading the Mind in the Eyes test and prosocial tasks (helping and sharing). All children improved in their ability to entrain to external rhythms over time, with the music group outperforming controls in the entrainment-social condition. Developmental effects were found for theory of mind, but no significant group differences. Although there were no significant group differences for prosociality, following three years of music education, entrainment scores in the alone condition were positively correlated with the number of stickers that children in the music group gave to friends. Results are discussed in light of the nature of collective music learning through ensemble participation and its role in the development of social-cognitive and prosocial skills in childhood.