The Impact of Group Drumming on Social-Emotional Behavior in Low-Income Children
Author Information
Author(s): Ho Ping, Tsao Jennie C. I., Bloch Lian, Zeltzer Lonnie K.
Primary Institution: University of California, Los Angeles
Hypothesis
Could a school-based group drumming program, integrated with activities from group counseling, improve social and emotional behavior in low-income children?
Conclusion
Participation in group drumming led to significant improvements in multiple domains of social-emotional behavior.
Supporting Evidence
- Drumming improved total problems and internalizing problems significantly.
- Improvements were noted in attention problems and anxiety problems.
- Drumming sessions fostered positive youth development and increased student-counselor interaction.
Takeaway
Kids who participated in group drumming got better at managing their feelings and working with others.
Methodology
A pretest-post-test non-equivalent control group design was used to assess the effects of 12 weeks of school counselor-led drumming on social-emotional behavior in two fifth-grade intervention classrooms versus two standard education control classrooms.
Potential Biases
Teacher raters may have been prone to reporting bias due to knowledge of group assignments.
Limitations
The study had small effect sizes, lacked random assignment, and teacher raters were not blinded to group assignments.
Participant Demographics
101 participants, 90% Latino, 53.5% female, mean age 10.5 years.
Statistical Information
P-Value
p<0.001
Statistical Significance
p<0.01
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
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