Developing a Child and Adolescent Chorister Engagement Survey: Probing Perceptions of Early Collective Experiences and Outcomes

Abstract

This article describes the design and implementation of a survey instrument specifically developed for 6–17-year-old Australian choral singers to access and measure participants’ perceptions of their self-esteem, self-efficacy, musical identity and social engagement as outcomes of participation in a high-quality choral ensemble. After reviewing existing music surveys and identifying their strengths, complementarities, differences and potential weaknesses, we adapted established surveys from psychology and social science literature to the choral music setting. An initial draft survey was trialled with higher education choristers and refined prior to implementation in six young choirs that were noted for their high-quality performance. Data from 202 surveys were analysed using confirmatory factor analysis and this resulted in a four-factor model. The validated survey was implemented twice over a six-month period with 61 choristers drawn from three choirs. Results showed that social and psychological benefits of choir participation were evidenced, maintained and even improved over time. Findings support the suitability and psychometric soundness of this new survey instrument, and demonstrate the usefulness of adapting psychological/social survey instruments to music research.