Social Skills in Music Therapy Practice: A Content Analysis on AMTA Journals from 1964-2024

The purpose of this content analysis was to ascertain specific practices, demographics, and research formats used to teach or improve social skills in music therapy practice. A history of interdisciplinary research on social skills is presented, followed by an in-depth analysis of 181 journal articles published in the American Music Therapy Association (AMTA) journals. These publications were categorized by their degree of relevance to the practice of teaching social skills. Although a frequently assigned treatment goal and a topic of considerable interest, there remains disagreement among professionals on how to operationally define social skills. The results reflect this discrepancy but provide some useful recommendations on how to successfully treat social skills in music therapy practice with a variety of populations. The most common social skills addressed in music therapy practice were those of initiating verbal communication (49%) and self-regulation (19%). Interventions addressing social skills were implemented by board-certified music therapists typically to children and adolescents with developmental disabilities (31.8%) and mental health disorders (15.4%) using applications with musical instrument play (32%) and group singing (22.9%). Implications for future practice and research are discussed.

Grantor dc:publisher

Florida State University

Year dc:date

2024

Contributors dc:contributor

• Howland, Ethan VandeRee (author)
• Gooding, Lori F. (Lori Fogus) (professor directing thesis)
• Iwamasa, Dawn (committee member)
• Standley, Jayne M. (committee member)
• Florida State University (degree granting institution)
• College of Music (degree granting college)
• College of Music (degree granting department)

• Music therapy

Language dc:language

English

Identifier

fsu:927924
iid: Howland_fsu_0071N_18771

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:diginole.lib.fsu.edu:fsu_927924