Poster #139 - Teacher-Directed and Child-Directed Music Activities in Head Start: Predicting Positive Emotion and Executive Function

• In Event: Poster Session 14

Abstract

Music experiences implemented in early childhood education settings can be beneficial to young children’s development within those settings and beyond. A "music experience" in the context of early education can include rhythm/movement-based activity (i.e., dancing), the use of simple percussion instruments (e.g., hand drum, shaker), singing, listening to relaxation music, and rhythm activities based on therapeutic practice (i.e., music therapy). Existing literature is primarily concerned with music experience as it relates to children’s executive functioning (EF) in preschool (Bowmer et al., 2018; Putkinen et al., 2015; Ruokonen et al., 2021; Williams et al., 2019). Adult-directed music experiences have clear developmental benefits to self-regulation, attentional control, inhibitory control, memory, and cognitive flexibility for preschool aged children (Bowmer et al., 2018; Putkinen et al., 2015; Williams et al., 2019). Music interventions in preschool are also correlated with children’s positive emotional development (Cheung at al., 2019; Ruokonen et al., 2021). The effects of targeted music programs implemented in preschool settings can have lasting impacts on children’s development (Rauscher and Hinton, 2011).

Importantly, much of the literature concerning music in early education settings focuses on teacher-directed (structured) music activities. Less is known about the effects of preschool children’s self-directed engagement in music activities for their EF and emotional development longitudinally. The present study addresses this gap and differentiates child-directed and teacher-directed music activities and examines the effects of engagement in these activities in preschool on EF and emotional development one year later (i.e., Kindergarten).

Participants were Head Start children (N = 287; M age = 52 months, 48% girls, 70% Mexican or Mexican-American) from lower socioeconomic status families. Observations captured children's engagement in music activities, defined as any activity in which a child engages with music (instruments, singing, dancing, etc.), throughout the fall and spring semester of their pre-kindergarten year. Observations also captured whether a child’s music engagement occurred within a child-directed setting (e.g., free play, centers) or a teacher-directed setting (e.g., small or large group). In the spring, children’s Head Start teachers reported on shortened scales (anger, positive emotion, attention focusing, attention shifting, and inhibitory control) of the Child Behavior Questionnaire (CBQ; Goldsmith & Rothbart, 1991). In the spring of their kindergarten year, the children’s Kindergarten teachers also rated children on the CBQ.

Analyses revealed no significant findings between child- and teacher-directed engagement for teacher ratings of anger or executive function (i.e., composite of attention focusing, attention shifting, and inhibitory control). Results did however indicate that greater levels of music engagement in preschool was related to higher ratings of positive emotions in kindergarten, accounting for positive emotion in preschool (β = 0.15, p < .05). Consistent with previous literature examining preschooler's adult-directed music engagement, evidence from the current study suggests that music in child-directed settings can have a positive and lasting influence on children’s emotional well-being, (Boucher et al., 2021; Cheung at al., 2019; Ruokonen et al., 2021; Vist, 2011). Implications of the findings across settings and within different communities will be discussed.

Authors

• Joshua Rogalski, Texas State University
  Presenting Author

• Priscilla Goble, Texas State University

• Laura D Hanish, Arizona State University

• Carol Lynn Martin, Arizona State University

• Richard A Fabes, Arizona State University