Affective and Cognitive Mechanisms Behind Music Education: Implications for Student Mental Health

This paper examines the cognitive and emotional positive outcomes of the music education and their implications to the mental health of students. To be more exact, it examines the effects of music education participation on such cognitive abilities as memory, attention, and executive function, on emotional regulation and mental health outcomes. Mixed-method design was used, where the total number of secondary school students was 200 with 100 in music education group and another 100 in control group. The cognitions performance was evaluated by using the tasks that tested the working memory, selective attention, and executive performance. The levels of emotional regulation were measured with the help of the Profile of Mood States (POMS) and Social and emotional competence questionnaire (SECQ) and the GAD-7 and PHQ-9 were used to measure the level of anxiety and depression. Results showed that the music education group did far better compared to the control in all the cognitive measures. In addition, students with music education group were more able to control their emotions, and less anxious and depressed. It was discovered that in the qualitative interviews, the students viewed music education as a means that can be employed to express their emotions and overcome stress. All these results indicate that music education promotes cognitive and emotional growth that it may be a possible intervention that may enhance the mental health of students. This paper reveals the need to incorporate music education into the school curriculum that will enable them to contribute to cognitive and emotional development that leads to the well being and the overall school performance of the student.