Parental Influence on Children's Musical Lives

Today's post is an abridged version of a overview of research literature on the influence of parental involvement in children's musical lives. The Suzuki Method is built on the strong principle of parent involvement and research shows its benefits in the musical education of children. 

Just a little background on this research - I complied 12 research articles about parental involvement in children's musical lives, analyzed and compared the data, and drew conclusions from the results of each individual study. Below you will find a summary of the information from 3 of those 12 articles. 

This post is very research-y! But the results are fascinating and very applicable to our lessons! If you'd like to read a copy of the full paper I wrote, click here. 

Why is there a need for this research?

• Researchers are conducting studies in the field of education to document the effects of parental involvement on children's success in school - music learning is similar, so why not apply it to music learning?
• Support is vital for children in learning environments and that includes music
• Parent involvement is multi-faceted and various studies have been shown to have varying outcomes. This makes findings difficult to generalize so many studies need to be conducted
• Enhance educational outcomes for students through the informed use of parent involvement

Summary of the Literature

Parents influence their children in many ways and the particular support they can provide may have a major influence on the nature and form of a child’s accomplishments. A growing body of research suggests that parents might support children in persisting in learning musical instruments and developing musical expertise. Research reveals the value of collaborative learning for the child with other family members to assist in the development of  higher levels of competence in cognitive and social skills. Researchers who examined the learning of instrumental music have also investigated selected aspects of parental involvement as it relates to musical performance and music achievement. 

Research Studies

1. The role of parental influences in the development of musical performance. 
Davidson, J. W., Howe, M. J, Moore, D. G., Sloboda, J. A. (1996). Journal of Developmental Psychology.

Sample

• 257 children, ages 8-18 
• Divided into 5 groups based on different levels of musical competence
• experience ranges from children attending a specialist music school (like a fine arts academy) to children who stopped learning an instrument at least 1 year prior to being interviewed. 

Methodology

• Each child and at least one parent were independently interviewed by one of the authors. 

Results

• In general, the group of children at the specialist music school (Group 1) were rated as having significantly higher parental involvement than the groups of children who either never considered taking the instrument seriously or gave up learning and instrument (Groups 4 & 5).
• Between the ages 3-11 the average level of parental involvement in lessons was highest in Group 1 and lowest in Groups 4 and 5.  
• There was no significant group differences in parental involvement over the ages 12-14 and 15-17 years => parental involvement decreases as students gain more independence
• There were no differences between the groups in terms of the parent’s role in initiating practice. All children needed to be reminded to practice. (it's not just your child!!!)
• The more skilled the children were in music, the higher the parental involvement in lessons and practice. 
• However,  Groups 3 & 4 showed intermediate levels of involvement which increases in subsequent years. Group 5 shows consistently low levels of involvement.  

Parental Behaviors

• The mothers of Group 1 children were more involved in listening and playing music than the mothers of children in the other groups.  It is noted that the parents in Group 1 were not, in general, performing musicians - they do no more than listen to music at home. 
• The parents of Groups 1 & 2 are slightly involved in music, but become more involved as their child’s interest grows. 
• Group 3 parents are somewhat less involved in music than Group 1 & 2 parents, but also become more involved during the child’s period of learning. 
• In Groups 4 & 5 the parental interest in music is minimal and there is no increase in this interest as a result of the child’s involvement in music-making.

Conclusions and The Take-Away

• All students need to be reminded to practice, just like all children need to be reminded to brush their teeth. 
• Parent behaviors, in terms of involvement in practice and musical activities, was strongly correlated with student success and and musical competence. 

2. Parental involvement, selected student attributes, and learning outcomes in instrumental music
Zdzinski, S. F. (1996). Journal of Research in Music Education.

Sample

• 397 instrumental students from grades 4-12

Methodology & Measurements

• Used a variety of tests to measure affective outcomes, cognitive musical achievement, performance achievement, performance evaluation, parental involvement and music aptitude.

Results

• Parental involvement is related to instrumental music outcomes and found to be significantly related to affective, cognitive and performance outcomes (students attitudes, knowledge and skills)
• Affective outcome relationships increased in strength as subject age increased however the opposite was the case for cognitive and performance outcomes. 
• Cognitive and performance outcomes were only significantly related to parental involvement at elementary school levels and was not related at either the middle school or high school levels. 
• When grade-level correlations between performance scores and the parent involvement scale are examined, parental involvement was not found to be significantly related at the secondary levels but was significantly related at the elementary level. 
• The strongest relationship was found between parental involvement and student attitudes

Conclusions and The Take-Away

• Not all outcomes are the same - this is hard to measure 
• However, the researcher found a strong relationship between the involvement of parents and the student's attitudes towards music learning. 

3. Learning a musical instrument: the case for parental support. Creech, A. (2010). Music Education Research. 

Sample

• 263 violin teachers, 352 parents, 337 children (all of whom studied the violin) 

Methodology

• The views of parents, pupils and teachers were elicited via the ‘Survey of Parents’ Views’, ‘Survey of Pupil Attitudes to Learning the Violin’ and the ‘Survey of Teacher Attitudes’ developed for this study. 
• The researcher investigated interactions and interpersonal dynamics outcomes for parents, teachers and children based on information from the surveys. 

Results

• The results indicated that generally parents did provide relatively high levels of behavioral support. Behavioral support was at its highest when children were 9-11 years old. 
• Parents that took a substantial amount of responsibility in the lessons provided their children with the highest amount of behavioral (monitors practice, attends lessons) and personal support (offers help). 
• Parents did prioritize providing resources for learning in the home, encouraged extra-curricular musical activities and supported their children by attending their concerts. 
• Cognitive/intellectual support was at it’s highest for the oldest group of students. 
• Personal support included variables that indicated parents were interested in their children’ s goals and views, rewarded their children with praise and were aware of dynamics between the child and the teacher. 

Conclusions and The Take-Away

• Creech examined the dynamics between parent and child as well as parent-child-teacher, very similar to the Suzuki Triangle. She identified different interactions and interpersonal dynamics between parents, children and teachers and examined how those interactions influenced students' enjoyment of music, personal satisfaction, motivation, self-efficacy and self-esteem.
• As noted in previous studies, the results showed vastly different outcomes for students. No one interaction was clearly superior though certain types of interactions to avoid are suggested

General Conclusions

All three studies show the positive effects of parental support in music lessons. Parental support is necessary to developing successful musical skills. 

• The Davidson, et al, study shows that successful music students have the highest level of parental support in music. 
• Zdzinski’s study shows that parental involvement and attitudes have an effect on student attitudes and affective outcomes in music. This alone indicates that parental support shapes a student’s attitude toward music. 
• Creech’s studies show that specific parent-teacher-student interactions have specific outcomes on student’s musical ability.  

Together, these three studies validate the need for parent support and briefly highlight what types of support is most effective during which age as well as which particular interactions facilitate and yield success. All three studies, with different designs and methods, yield results that validate the wisdom that parents play an important role in children’s motivation, attitudes and achievement. 

References

Creech, A. (2010). Learning a musical instrument: the case for parental support. Music Education Research, 12 (1), 13-32.

Davidson, J. W., Howe, M. J, Moore, D. G., Sloboda, J. A. (1996). The role of parental influences in the development of musical performance. Journal of Developmental Psychology, 14, 399-412.

Zdzinski, S. F. (1996). Parental involvement, selected student attributes, and learning outcomes in instrumental music. Journal of Research in Music Education, 44, 34-48.