How Can We Help? Wellbeing Interventions for Choral Music Ensembles

Summary

The goal of this clinical trial is to learn if psychology and music based interventions can impact anxiety and overall wellbeing in adolescents enrolled in choral music classes. The main questions it aims to answer are:

Do specific psychology and music based breathing interventions impact anxiety and overall wellbeing in adolescents? Do specific psychology and music based performance anxiety reduction interventions impact anxiety and overall wellbeing in adolescents? Do specific psychology and music based emotion regulation interventions impact anxiety and overall wellbeing in adolescents? Researchers will compare results of pre-test data, post-test data, qualitative interviews, and surveys of adult choral directors to see if there is a measurable impact on adolescent anxiety and overall wellbeing.

Participants will:

* Use box breathing during choral music warm-ups to connect choral breathing to breathing for anxiety reduction
* Use "magnify" technique to compare cognitive distortions regarding an upcoming performance that may cause anxiety to the most likely realistic outcome
* Use emotion regulation through song lyrics technique to connect lyrics of choral music repertoire to participants experienced emotions

Conditions

• Anxiety
• Well-Being (Psychological Flourishing)
• Performance Anxiety

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Box breathing

Students will be led through a standard choral music breathing technique known as abdominal breathing, where they are reminded that a deep breath should cause your abdomen to expand to make more room in the lungs for air. After 2-3 standard deep breaths, they will be introduced to box breathing, which is an inhale for 4 beats, hold for 4 beats, exhale for 4 beats, hold for 4 beats, and repeat. Students will be told that this technique is useful for improving choral singing but can also be used in situations where the student is experiencing anxiety.

BEHAVIORAL

Magnify

This is a mindfulness-based technique that pulls from Cognitive Behavior Therapy and Dialectical Behavior Therapy techniques that is referred to colloquially as "what would happen if" or "magnify", used to examine cognitive distortions and reframe them to be more in line with reality. Students will be asked to think about an upcoming performance that may make them feel anxious and come up with a catastrophic scenario where everything that could possibly go wrong does go wrong, making note of the likelihood of the catastrophe. Students will internally come up with a best-case scenario and likelihood, and finally a most likely scenario somewhere between the best and worst case options.

BEHAVIORAL

Emotion regulation through choral literature

This intervention will use choral music literature to help students identify emotions, connect those emotions to their own experiences, and use the choral music literature to experience and work through those emotions in a safe environment. The choir will read through the lyrics of the chosen song, then narrow down the emotions referred to in the song using a list of possible emotions provided by the researcher. Students will recall an event in their own lives where they experienced that emotion, which they are not required to share out loud. With that emotion in mind, students will sing through the choral music piece, taking care to connect their own emotional experience with what they are singing. After the song, students will be asked to reflect on whether their own experiences with that emotion changed their perspective on the song, and whether singing about the emotion helped them work through their own situations and regulate their feelings.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Jess Walls

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Jane Kuehne, PhD · Auburn University

Study Design

Allocation

NA

Purpose

TREATMENT

Masking

NONE

Model

SINGLE_GROUP

Eligibility

Min Age

10 Years

Max Age

20 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2026-01-31

Primary Completion

2026-02-28

Completion

2026-04-30

Countries

• United States

Study Locations