Music education and psychological well being in children and early adolescents at the "children's city of aguascalientes"

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to present the results of a study that aimed to determine the effects of music education in children and early adolescents in a representative subdimension of each dimension in Seligman's construct of well-being: a) positive emotion; b) engagement; c) relationships; d) meaning and purpose in life; and e) accomplishment (2011). The research was developed in the "Ciudad de los Niños de Aguascalientes" Mexico, an institution that protects orphans, as well as children and adolescents in vulnerable conditions. The research combined quantitative and qualitative methods and had an experimental design of pretest - posttest with control group. The experimental and control groups were integrated randomly. The treatment consisted of music education classes, while the control group received reading comprehension classes. The pre-test and post-test consisted of a battery of standardized psychological tests. The results indicate that children in the experimental group had a generalized improvement in their psychological well-being, while children in the control group consistently lowered their level of well-being. These findings highlight the remarkable potential of music education to raise children's quality of life and its tremendous social impact.