How Can We Help? Wellbeing Interventions for Choral Music Ensembles

Abstract

With adolescent mental health concerns increasing globally, educators are increasingly examining ways to support student wellbeing within existing educational environments. Music classrooms, which often provide emotionally expressive and collaborative spaces, may offer opportunities to integrate mental wellness strategies into daily instruction. The purpose of this mixed-methods experimental study was to examine the effectiveness of three psychology- informed interventions implemented within secondary choral music classrooms: (1) breathing regulation techniques designed to support physiological self-regulation, (2) a cognitive reframing strategy rooted in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) intended to reduce performance-related anxiety, and (3) an emotion regulation strategy connecting emotional awareness to choral repertoire. Participants included 335 choral students in grades six through 12 across four public school choral programs who completed repeated measures of anxiety, wellbeing, emotion regulation, emotion awareness, music–emotion engagement, and mood. Quantitative data were analyzed using linear mixed-effects modeling to examine changes across time between intervention and control groups, while qualitative data from interviews and open-ended survey responses were analyzed using inductive thematic analysis. Quantitative analyses indicated no statistically significant differences between intervention and control groups over time for anxiety or wellbeing outcomes. However, emotion regulation scores demonstrated a significant interaction between group and time when demographic covariates were included, suggesting greater stability in emotion regulation among students receiving the interventions. Mood outcomes also differed between groups across time. Several demographic variables, including school level, gender identity, and self-reported mental health status, were significant predictors across multiple outcomes. Qualitative findings indicated that students already employ multiple strategies to manage anxiety, frequently using music as a coping tool, and perceived the interventions as potentially helpful and transferable to both performance and non-musical contexts. These findings suggest that psychology-informed strategies can be integrated into music ensemble settings with minimal disruption while providing students with practical tools for managing stress and emotional experiences. The study contributes to interdisciplinary research connecting music education and mental health and offers practical implications for music educator training and classroom practice.