Journal Article

Long-term music instruction is partially associated with the development of socioemotional skills

Villanueva, Jed, Ilari, Beatriz, Habibi, Assal

2024

Overview

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.

• Publisher: Public Library of Science,Public Library of Science (PLoS)
• Subject: Academic achievement / Adolescence / Adolescent / Adolescents / After school programs / Age / Age differences / Behavior / Biology and Life Sciences / Child / Child development / Children / Cognition / Cooperation / Drumming / Education / Emotional behavior / Emotional development / Emotions / Emotions - physiology / Empathy / Empathy - physiology / Entrainment / Female / Fiction / Frequency / Humans / Male / Matching / Music / Music - psychology / Music education / Music in education / Musical performances / Musicians & conductors / People and Places / Perceptions / Pitch / Pitch (inclination) / Pitch Perception - physiology / Rhythm / Rhythms / Schools / Sensory integration / Skills / Social behavior / Social interaction / Social Sciences / Social Skills / Speaking / Sports / Stimulus / Teaching / Theory / Theory of mind / Training / Underserved populations / Verbal communication