Young Children S Musical Self-Concepts and Family Musical Experiences

MUSICAL SELF-CONCEPTS OF YOUNG CHILDREN

Christina Chin, University of California at Santa Cruz

Discussion of the beneficial effects of music on child development often centers on cognitive development, such as spatial-temporal reasoning (e.g. Rauscher et al., 1997). In contrast, the present research addresses the effects of musical activities on an area of social and emotional development, the self-concept. This research investigates why some young children think of themselves as musical, and hence are motivated to do music activities, whereas others do not think of themselves as musical. Because music programs are often the first to go when the budgets of schools in the U.S. are cut, it is important for us to understand the consequences of a lack of music education for the development of children’s musical self-concept and their possible involvement in future musical activities.

Even when elementary schools in the U.S. have music programs, it is common for children not to have an opportunity to learn to play a musical instrument in school until fourth grade. Unfortunately, by the time children are 9 years old, we may have missed valuable years in terms of the formation of their self-concepts. According to Piaget, children enter concrete operations when they grasp the ideas of conservation and seriation between the ages of 5 and 8 (Boden, 1979). Commensurate with these newfound cognitive abilities, children begin to think of themselves and other people in terms of traits, and to use social comparison to rank individuals, including themselves, to others in different domains (Sameroff & Haith, 1996). For example, a child might go from thinking of someone as a person who makes cookies and cakes to thinking of someone as a person who is good at baking. Because the transition from thinking of oneself and others as doing things to thinking of oneself and others as having abilities takes place between the ages of 5 and 8, it is critical for developmental psychologists to study the early formation of self-concepts in children as young as 5 to 8 years old.

Unfortunately, however, most studies of children’s self-concepts have been carried out with older children, because it is easier to administer measures to children who can read. Although it is possible to read 64 self-concept questions aloud to young children (Marsh, Craven, & Debus, 1991), it is probably not too engaging a task for young participants. A fairly recent innovation methodologically is the use of puppets with very young children (Eder, 1990; Ablow & Measelle, 1993), but a pictorial instrument is most widely used to study the self-concepts of young children (Harter & Pike, 1983). The Pictorial Scale of Perceived Competence and Social Acceptance for Young Children (PSPCSA) is developmentally appropriate and user-friendly, but neglects to measure any kind of musical or artistic self-concept that children may have. For the present research, a new instrument was devised which measures musical self-concept and artistic self-concept, as well as self-concept in other areas. To do this, the format of the PSPCSA was retained, but the content - pictures and questions – were modified.

In addition to assessing children’s self-concepts, the present study assessed family musical environment through a parental questionnaire. Although the family environment that children grow up in probably affects their self-concepts, including their musical self-concept, surprisingly little research has been conducted on family influence on children’s musical development. No research directly addresses the initial formation of young children’s musical self-concept, which is likely a necessary precursor for individuals to continue to be involved in music as they get older and perhaps later decide to become professional musicians. A study of concert pianists from the U.S. found that 19% came from families with no prior musical involvement (Sosniak, 1985). Perhaps what might matter more to a child’s musical development than whether a child’s family members are musically involved themselves is whether a child’s family is supportive of the child’s musical activities. For example, in a British study of musically gifted 10- to 18-year-olds, 86% of the students benefited from some form of parental encouragement or pressure to practice (Sloboda & Howe, 1991). Note that this study did not include children as young as those in the present research. Because parents’ attitudes towards music may affect their children’s musical self-concepts, an additional component of this study was a parent questionnaire assessing attitudes towards music and family musical environment. Not much research has focused on parents’ attitudes towards music, with such notable exceptions as the 1994 Gallup poll measuring Americans’ attitudes towards music, and a measure of the home musical environment which correlated with second graders’ musical ability as assessed by teachers (Brand, 1986).

METHOD

Participants

Participants were 88 children between the ages of 5 and 8, and their parents. The sample consisted of 43 first-grade students and 45 second-grade students. There were 46 girls and 42 boys. The Northern California school district from which students were drawn is about 44% European American, 29% Latino, 19% Asian American, and 6% African American. Most were attending a public elementary school which was the first to participate in a pioneering music program, Guitars in the Classroom, with the remainder attending a neighboring public school without a music program.

Materials

Self-Concept: A new adaptation of the Pictorial Scale of Perceived Competence and Acceptance for Young Children (Harter & Pike, 1983) was used. Whereas the original measure assessed scholastic competence, physical competence, peer acceptance, and maternal acceptance, the revised measure assesses musical competence, artistic competence, scholastic competence, physical competence, prosocial competence, and acceptance of physical appearance. Child participants point to which of two pictured children is more like them, then answer a second question asking to what degree they are like the pictured child. This two-step process results in each variable being measured on a 4-point forced choice scale.

Questionnaire: Parents were asked questions about the family’s active experience with music, the family’s listening habits, and the parents’ attitudes towards music. Some questions were adapted from Brand’s (1986) Home Musical Environmental Scale (HOMES).

Procedure

Child and parent participation was on a voluntary basis. Child participants were individually administered the revised version of the Pictorial Scale of Perceived Competence and Acceptance for Young Children at the school site. Parent participants filled out the questionnaires at home and sent them back to school with their children. Data were collected at the beginning and at the end of the school year.

Design

A 2 (grade) x 2 (school) x 2 (gender) x 2 (within) ANOVA was used to analyze child self-concept data. Chi-squares and correlations were used to analyze parent questionnaire data.

RESULTS

Child Self-Concept

Music vs. Other Activities: For the overall mean values of the different areas of self-concept, see Table 1. Apparently, the first and second graders studied are more confident in their abilities to do anything measured besides sing and play musical instruments.

TABLE 1 – MEAN VALUES OF CHILD SELF-CONCEPT

IN DIFFERENT AREAS

Developmental Differences: See Figure 1. Not surprisingly, second graders rated themselves better at reading and at math than did first graders, an assessment that may have a basis in reality. In contrast, however, second graders rated themselves worse at singing and at playing musical instruments than did first graders.

Gender Differences: See Figure 2. Girls rated themselves better at singing than did boys. Boys rated themselves better at climbing than did girls.

Family Musical Environment

Parent Attitudes: A positive attitude towards music in the fall was associated with child’s self-rated musical abilities in the spring. Specifically, parents’ endorsement of the statement “I can’t imagine life without music” was positively correlated with child’s later self-rated singing ability (r=.34, p<.05).

DISCUSSION

In the early elementary years, children’s self-concepts in music are low compared to their self-concepts in other areas, such as physical activity. The current research, which found that first- and second-graders’ self-concepts in playing a musical instrument and in singing were lower than their self-concepts in other areas, corroborated Eccles et al.’s (1993) finding that first-, second-, and fourth-graders’ self-concepts in playing a musical instrument were lower than their self-concepts in other areas. In fact, although in the current study children’s self-concepts in most areas increase or remain relatively stable from first to second grade, their self-concepts in music undergo a decline during this period. In contrast, Eccles et al. (1993) did not find significant differences in children’s self-concepts in most areas from first to second grade, but did from second to fourth grade. The difference between the findings of the current study and Eccles et al.’s (1993) findings perhaps can be explained by the differing methodologies used to assess self-concept. Eccles et al. (1993) read questions aloud to children, who used a pictorial representation of a 7-point Likert scale to respond. Since first- and second-graders have not necessarily mastered the ability to make multiple comparisons yet, and hence would not necessarily understand the relatively complex 7-point Likert scale, this method would be less sensitive to measuring their self-concept than our method of asking two dichotomous questions in succession. In any case, Eccles et al.’s (1993) findings suggest that it is crucial to supply musical activities to children before third or fourth grade, before they become convinced that they are not good at music and fail to develop any interest in doing musical things. Our findings, using a methodology more compatible with the cognitive limitations of first- and second-graders, suggest that it may be critical to introduce children to music even earlier. This empirical finding is supported by developmental psychology theory asserting that the ages from six to eight are vital to the early formation of self-concept, i.e. when children begin to think of themselves and other people in terms of traits, not just their physical characteristics and the things they do (Damon & Hart, 1982), and when social comparison becomes very important (Sameroff & Haith, 1986).

Previous research regarding children’s gender role development and music has found girls and boys to gravitate towards different musical instruments as early as in third grade (Abeles & Porter, 1978), and that girls express more favorable attitudes towards music than boys in the third through sixth grades (Nolin, 1973). Children’s gender role development with respect to music has rarely been studied before third grade. In a notable exception, the self-concepts of first-, second-, and fourth-graders were studied (Eccles et al., 1993); girls perceived themselves as better at music and reading than boys perceived themselves to be, and boys perceived themselves as better at sports and math than girls perceived themselves to be. In the current study, two of these findings were corroborated; girls have more confidence in their singing abilities than boys have in theirs, and boys have more confidence in their climbing abilities than girls have in theirs. Future research could investigate the phenomenon of boys already thinking that they are not as good at singing relative to girls as early as first grade by administering a measure of gender role development to participants. Then it would be possible to discover whether girls are more likely to perceive themselves as good at music, or whether feminine-stereotyped individuals are more likely to perceive themselves as good at music.

Parental perceptions of children’s competence in certain areas can affect the development of children’s competence in those areas. With regard to math, English, and sports, parents’ perceptions of their children’s abilities have been shown to be influenced by children’s gender, and not necessarily by children’s actual performance (Jacobs & Eccles, 1992). Since previous research has not been carried out to study parents’ perceptions of their children’s competence in music, this exploratory research is noteworthy for showing a link between positive parental attitudes towards music (belief in the importance of music for themselves personally) and child musical self-concept. Future data collection could be improved by having parents rate their attitudes on a Likert scale rather than by globally endorsing or failing to endorse a statement. In previous research with adolescents talented in music and other arts, most participants reported that someone’s approval helps motivate them to do their music or other art; a mother’s approval is most frequently mentioned (Chin, 1997). Since many of the adolescent participants in the aforementioned study had been involved in music and other arts for several years, it is of vital importance to carry out more research with parents of young children.

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