Wednesday, March 22nd, 2023
Elle Chrampanis
Psychological Well-Being and Music Among Children
This summer I conducted research under the supervision of Dr. Nicholas Roseth of the Music Education Department at Bucknell. Together, we explored the effect that music had on the psychological well-being of children. I explored this research topic through reading scholarly research articles, enriching myself in books surrounding the fields, completing an annotated bibliography, and crafting a literature review. I utilized Zotero as a source manager and gathered thirty two sources for my annotated bibliography. Ultimately, I found that music aided children in their education and home settings through the lens of positive psychology. I applied the previous research I collected into the PERMA model developed by Martin Seligman, which is an acronym for positive emotions, engagement, relationships, meaning, and accomplishment. Through this categorization, I organized my annotated bibliography in the same manner. I found that listening, performing, participating, and learning about music aided their psychological well-being. The largest findings I found were that music could be used as a way to develop social skills and navigate social situations, thus strengthening relationships. Besides this, I found that active engagement was particularly significant for children as their participation required focus to obtain the benefits that music has to offer. Regardless of the type of involvement, music gave children enjoyment, confidence, motivation, resilience, and stronger relationships overall. I aim to use this background information to now craft my honors thesis. I learned the vast benefits of music and this research emphasized the importance of music in early childhood.