The impact of group drumming on social-emotional behavior in low-income children

Abstract

Low-income youth experience social-emotional problems linked to chronic stress that are exacerbated by lack of access to care. Drumming is a non-verbal, universal activity that builds upon a collectivistic aspect of diverse cultures and does not bear the stigma of therapy. A pretest-post-test non-equivalent control group design was used to assess the effects of 12 weeks of school counselor-led drumming on social-emotional behavior in two fifth-grade intervention classrooms versus two standard education control classrooms. The weekly intervention integrated rhythmic and group counseling activities to build skills, such as emotion management, focus and listening. The Teachers Report Form was used to assess each of 101 participants (n = 54 experimental, n = 47 control, 90 Latino, 53.5 female, mean age 10.5 years, range 1012 years). There was 100 retention. ANOVA testing showed that intervention classrooms improved significantly compared to the control group in broad-band scales (total problems (P