Music Education as a Path to Positive Youth Development: An El Sistema-Inspired Program

Authors

  • Michelle Marie Hospital Florida International University
  • Staci Leon Morris Florida International University
  • Eric F. Wagner Florida International University
  • Eva Wales Florida International University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5195/jyd.2018.572

Keywords:

music education, positive youth development, social emotional learning, evaluation

Abstract

The El Sistema music education philosophy links positive individual and social development through musical education. This study is a longitudinal examination of the impact of participation in an El Sistema-inspired program, the Miami Music Project, on positive youth development. We hypothesized that over the course of a school year, participation in ensemble-based after-school music programming would significantly enhance factors associated with positive youth development. Specifically, we evaluated social emotional constructs aligned with the Five Cs of Positive Youth Development: Competence, Confidence, Caring, Character, and Connection. Results revealed that participants showed significant increases across all five Cs over the course of the year. Additionally, findings showed that Miami Music Project students showed greater enhancements over time in Character, Competence and Caring when compared to a group of youth who did not participate in music education. This study presents empirical documentation of the numerous meaningful social and emotional enhancements that participation in an El Sistema-inspired program is engendering among youth. In this type of rigorous orchestral model of musical instruction, youth seem to acquire not only cognitive benefits but also a host of social and emotional enhancements, ostensibly from learning in an environment that requires disciplined social cohesion. These findings provide insight into the holistic approach foundational to the El Sistema philosophy and adds to our overall understanding of musical instruction in important ways.

Author Biographies

Michelle Marie Hospital, Florida International University

Associate Director, FIU-BRIDGEResearch Associate Professor, School of Integrated Science and Humanity

Staci Leon Morris, Florida International University

Research Assistant Professor, FIU-BRIDGE 

Eric F. Wagner, Florida International University

Professor, Department of Social Work

Eva Wales, Florida International University

Community Research Coordinator, FIU-BRIDGE

References

Abreu, J. A. (2009). On kids transformed by music [Video]. Available from TED website: https://www.ted.com/talks/jose_abreu_on_kids_transformed_by_music?language=en

Beaulieu, S., & Sharpe, K. (2015). Using brain science to boost social and emotional skills. [Brief]. Saint Paul: University of Minnesota Extension Center for Youth Development. Retrieved from https://conservancy.umn.edu/handle/11299/195135

Bronfenbrenner, U., & Morris, P. A. (2006). The bioecological model of human development. In R. Lerner (Ed.), Handbook of child psychology, (pp. 793-828). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.

Creedon, D. W. (2011). Fight the stress of urban education with the arts. Phi Delta Kappan, 92(6), 34-36.

Collins, A. (2014). Music education and the brain: What does it take to make a change? Update: Applications of Research in Music Education, 32(2), 4-10.

Devroop, K. (2012). The social-emotional impact of instrumental music performance on disadvantaged South African students. Music Education Research, 14(4), 407-416.

Duckworth, A. L., & Quinn, P. D. (2009). Development and validation of the short grit scale (GRIT–S). Journal of Personality Assessment, 91(2), 166-174.

Edgar, S. N. (2013). Introducing social emotional learning to music education professional development. Update: Applications of Research in Music Education, 31(2), 28-36.

Govias, J. A. (2011). The five fundamentals of El Sistema. Canadian Music Educator, 53(1), 21-23.

Hallam, S. (2010). The power of music: Its impact on the intellectual, social and personal development of children and young people. International Journal of Music Education, 28(3), 269-289.

Hospital, M., Wagner, E., Morris, S., Pietraszko, A., Brizuela, A. & Judd, J. (2015). Project TREBLE: An examination of an innovative music education program for promoting resilience among urban minority youth. Poster presented at the 45th annual Urban Affairs Association Conference, Miami, FL.

Hyde, K. L., Lerch, J., Norton, A., Forgeard, M., Winner, E., Evans, A. C., & Schlaug, G. (2009). Musical training shapes structural brain development. Journal of Neuroscience, 29(10), 3019-3025.

Jaccard, J. (1998). Interaction effects in factorial analysis of variance. Sage University Papers Series on Quantitative Applications in the Social Sciences (Series No. 07-118). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Lerner, R. M. (2004). Liberty: Thriving and civic engagement among America’s youth. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Lerner, R. M., Lerner, J. V., Urban, J. B., & Zaff, J. (2016). Evaluating programs aimed at promoting positive youth development: A relational development systems-based view. Applied Developmental Science, 20(3), 175-187.

Miller, G. A., & Chapman, J. P. (2001). Misunderstanding analysis of covariance. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 110(1), 40-48.

Pellitteri, J. S. (2006). The use of music in facilitating emotional learning. In J. S. Pellitteri, R. Stern, C. Shelton, & B. Muller-Ackerman (Eds.), Emotionally intelligent school counseling (pp. 185–199). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

Sachs, M., Kaplan, J., Der Sarkissian, A., & Habibi, A. (2017). Increased engagement of the cognitive control network associated with music training in children during an fMRI Stroop task. PloS one, 12(10), e0187254.

Snyder, C. R., Hoza, B., Pelham, W. E., Rapoff, M., Ware, L., Danovsky, M., . . . & Stahl, K. J. (1997). The development and validation of the Children’s Hope Scale. Journal of Pediatric Psychology, 22(3), 399-421.

Tunstall, T. (2012). Changing lives: Gustavo Dudamel, El Sistema, and the transformative power of music. New York, NY: WW Norton & Company.

Downloads

Published

2018-12-14

Issue

Vol. 13 No. 4 (2018)

Section

Program & Practice Articles

License

Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:

  1. The Author retains copyright in the Work, where the term “Work” shall include all digital objects that may result in subsequent electronic publication or distribution.
  2. Upon acceptance of the Work, the author shall grant to the Publisher the right of first publication of the Work.
  3. The Author shall grant to the Publisher and its agents the nonexclusive perpetual right and license to publish, archive, and make accessible the Work in whole or in part in all forms of media now or hereafter known under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License or its equivalent, which, for the avoidance of doubt, allows others to copy, distribute, and transmit the Work under the following conditions:
    1. Attribution—other users must attribute the Work in the manner specified by the author as indicated on the journal Web site;
    with the understanding that the above condition can be waived with permission from the Author and that where the Work or any of its elements is in the public domain under applicable law, that status is in no way affected by the license.
  4. The Author is able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the nonexclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the Work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), as long as there is provided in the document an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
  5. Authors are permitted and encouraged to post online a prepublication manuscript (but not the Publisher’s final formatted PDF version of the Work) in institutional repositories or on their Websites prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work. Any such posting made before acceptance and publication of the Work shall be updated upon publication to include a reference to the Publisher-assigned DOI (Digital Object Identifier) and a link to the online abstract for the final published Work in the Journal.
  6. Upon Publisher’s request, the Author agrees to furnish promptly to Publisher, at the Author’s own expense, written evidence of the permissions, licenses, and consents for use of third-party material included within the Work, except as determined by Publisher to be covered by the principles of Fair Use.
  7. The Author represents and warrants that:
    1. the Work is the Author’s original work;
    2. the Author has not transferred, and will not transfer, exclusive rights in the Work to any third party;
    3. the Work is not pending review or under consideration by another publisher;
    4. the Work has not previously been published;
    5. the Work contains no misrepresentation or infringement of the Work or property of other authors or third parties; and
    6. the Work contains no libel, invasion of privacy, or other unlawful matter.
  8. The Author agrees to indemnify and hold Publisher harmless from Author’s breach of the representations and warranties contained in Paragraph 6 above, as well as any claim or proceeding relating to Publisher’s use and publication of any content contained in the Work, including third-party content.

Revised 7/16/2018. Revision Description: Removed outdated link.