The influence of socioeconomic status, parents, peers, psychological needs, and task values on middle school student motivation for school music ensemble participation

Abstract

There are a multitude of influences on adolescents’ decisions to enroll in elective instrumental music ensembles. While some music teachers might rely on external rewards such as end-of-year trips to encourage retention from year to year, middle school students’ sociocultural and psychological characteristics may best account for their intentions to continue in band or orchestra. I examined needs satisfaction variables from Self-Determination Theory and task values from Expectancy Value Theory alongside environmental factors such as parent and peer influence as well as socioeconomic status (SES) as predictors of adolescent instrumental students’ elective intentions (N = 42). Data were analyzed using structural equation modeling. Parents tended to exert a large amount of influence over the extent to which participants’ needs were satisfied and a small amount of influence over the task values of their children. Concurrently, peers and SES played small but important roles in the development of elective intentions. Moreover, when parents and teachers were supportive of students’ autonomy, competence, and relatedness, instrumental music learning tasks were valued. Task values, in turn, strongly predicted middle school instrumental students’ intentions to persist and enroll in future instrumental music courses.