Music’s Influence on Teenagers and Children’s Mental Well-being
Music has been known to have the ability to significantly impact both an individual’s emotional state and their mental state in turn having an effect on their overall well-being. This effect is especially seen in young children and adolescents whose minds are still developing and extremely reactive to certain stimuli. It is important to acknowledge the large amount of power music has not just as an art form, but as something that has the potential to aid with emotional regulation and an individual’s mental health. This post will highlight the advantages that come along with music therapy, the science behind the correlation between music and emotions, and lastly how music can influence teenagers and children. By gaining an understanding of the benefits that come with music therapy and music in general, you gain the ability to create a more supportive and comforting environment in which your mental well-being or that of your younger children is looked after to an even higher level.
The science of music and emotion
One of the most fascinating things about how music can directly impact our brains is that when you listen to music, it triggers the release of dopamine, a neurotransmitter AKA your “feel-good” hormones. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that can directly impact sensations of pleasure or well-being. Another important and relatively well-known fact is the ability of different types of music to evoke different emotional responses. For example, quieter and slower sounds can result in people feeling more calm and relaxed while more upbeat and loud melodies can make people feel more happy and full of energy. Neurologically, music can stimulate and increase blood flow to certain parts of the brain that are involved in memory, emotions, and motivation/performance; the hippocampus, the amygdala and cerebellum, and lastly the motor cortex respectively. hormonally, the act of listening to music can significantly decrease your cortisol levels, which can, in turn, decrease your levels of stress. Listening to music also has impacts on your dopamine levels as mentioned above.
How Music Can influence Teens and children
Music can have more significant impacts on children and teenagers, it does not just act as a short-term mood booster; there have been several studies displaying how the act of listening to music or learning an instrument can enhance an individual’s social skills, improve their emotional regulation skills, and lastly help tremendously with cognitive development. In terms of improving an individual’s social skills, taking part in group musical lessons, or your school band/choir/orchestra can help strengthen one’s social skills and help develop bonds with other people. All the activities mentioned above can significantly improve an individual’s ability to understand, cooperate, and, communicate with other people, which are all essential factors in developing healthy social skills. With regard to how music can aid with emotional regulation and teaching yourself/your children to manage their emotions, listening to certain songs on the sad side or even just with relatable lyrics can aid with creating a space in which it is easier to process certain feelings such as grief or sadness they may be feeling, on the other hand, listening to more cheerful music can aid with brightening your mood. Lastly, both listening to and learning music can help with cognitive and overall development since the action of learning to play a certain instrument or participating in musical extracurriculars can significantly better an individual’s memory, coordination, attention, thinking skills, and, more.
How Individuals can benefit from music therapy
Music therapy is one of the many clinical approaches to helping an individual to achieve emotional/cognitive well-being through organized and well-planned use of several types of music/melodies. There are several different approaches towards music therapy, the main ones being compositional, improvisational, receptive, and re-creational. Music therapy provides individuals with many benefits, a few being: significant improvements in mood/reducing anxiety, as mentioned earlier, listening to music can significantly elevate a person’s mood and provide them with feelings of comfort/pleasure. An example of this is a study of how music can impact the level of anxiety a patient feels prior to an operation published in 1996, they found that listening to classical music had the ability to lower their anxiety by large amounts. They got these results by measuring and comparing the blood pressure measurements and respiratory rates of a group who had listened to music prior to their operation and a group who had not to a control group. Music can also allow children and teenagers to be able to express themselves a lot more such as through using lyrics, this is especially helpful to those who may struggle to express themselves through words.
How you can incorporate music into your/your child’s daily life
There are several different ways you can incorporate music into your/your child’s daily life whether it is to reduce stress, and anxiety, elevate your mood, or more.
- Playing quiet music in the background – Listening to calming/mellow music can allow for a more peaceful environment. A good type of music for this would be classical music, nature sounds, or instrumentals.
- Creating personalized playlists that may reflect a certain mood you may be could aid with coping with those feelings.
For children on the younger side specifically:
- Singing songs while doing chores/during bathtime.
- Listening to music in the car.
- Creating “instruments” using household items, using different containers, spoons at home, etc to create their own personalized instruments
- Musical storytelling can be extremely helpful in redirecting a child’s attention while also helping them enhance their critical thinking and imaginative skills.