A systematic review on the association between music education and mental health promotion
List of Authors
  • Lu Yi , Yeoh Pei Ann

Keyword
  • health promotion, mental health, music education, music educators, music therapy, systematic review

Abstract
  • Music has a long history in association with mental health and diverse literature had explored the relationship between these two components. Nonetheless, there is still a dearth of evidence to unravel the association between music education and mental health improvements, with limited attempts at systematic synthesis. Hence, this study aimed to evaluate the association between music education and mental health as well as its direction based on peer-reviewed articles retrieved from Web of Science (WOS) and Google Scholar. The findings generated a mixed outcome on the association between music education and mental health, in which six out of 11 final studies included in this review reported a positive association whereas the other five studies reported a negative association. In addition, the prevalence of mental health issues among the individuals who had a music education background is high compared to the others due to long schedules, cognitive liveliness, family economic situation and satisfaction with education. The findings also underscored a positive association between music education and mental health, especially in the studies where music education is treated as an intervention. In a nutshell, the findings of this study generated valuable insights on the association between music education and mental health that highlighted the potential of music education to be used as an intervention or therapy for mental health treatment.

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