Experienced workload, stress, and coping among professional students in higher music education: An explanatory mixed methods study in Finland and the United Kingdom

Abstract

Proactive coping styles may help students deal with their study workload and stress in healthier ways. In this explanatory mixed methods study, data were gathered among professional students in higher music education in Finland and the United Kingdom about their experiences of workload, stress, and proactive coping. Bivariate analyses were used to explore prevalence of study workload, stress, and seven proactive coping styles among genders, levels of degree, genre groups, and study programs, and investigate whether stress is predicted by study workload and proactive coping styles. Music students’ lived experiences were analyzed to find the determinants of their workload, stress, and coping. Results indicate significant differences between genders and study programs and specific concerns for music students, such as working alongside studying and physical and psychological problems. Higher music education institutions can utilize this evidence to better support music students in their studies and professional careers.

Lack of Emotional Experience, Resistance to Innovation, and Dissatisfied Musicians Influence on Music Unattractive Education

“…Moreover, music unattractive education (MUE) has been taken as the independent variable that has five items taken from Jääskeläinen et al (2022). These items are mentioned in Table 4.…”

Role of Resistance to Innovation, Lack of Intercultural Communication, and Student Interest on the Student Demotivation Results Towards the English Education System

“…This study has gathered the data using survey questionnaires. The questionnaire is extracted from past studies; the lack of intercultural communication (LIC) has seven items extracted from Ay et al (2018), resistance to innovation has eight items taken from Hosseini et al (2016), lack of student' interest (LSI) has four items extracted from Zhoc et al (2019), students' demotivation (SDM) has seven items taken from Afthanorhan et al (2019), and failure of English education system (FEES) has five items taken from Jääskeläinen et al (2022). These items with sources are given in Table 1.…”

Music students’ workload, stress, and coping in higher education: Evidence-based policymaking

“…Next, all the coded expressions were grouped into four categories and three overarching themes based on the context of the music student's experienced workload, and for the empirical studies, we continued the analysis with the extracts linked to each of the overarching themes: (1) student in Jääskeläinen et al (2022a), (2) environment in Jääskeläinen et al (2020), and (3) teacher in Jääskeläinen and López-Íñiguez (2022). The Finnish participants' quotes were translated from Finnish into English by the author, who speaks both languages, and refined in English by a native language editor.…”

“…In the second empirical study (i.e., Jääskeläinen et al, 2022a), Figure 5 shows the integration of the qualitative findings with the quantitative results. The results indicate that there are statistically significant differences among music students in different genre groups and study programs in relation to experienced study workload; in genders, genre groups, and study programs in relation to experienced stress; and in genders in relation to the use of proactive coping style.…”

“…The data were collected in seven higher music education institutions in Finland and the United Kingdom. Over 4 years, a total of seven studies were conducted in the MSW Project (see study characteristics in Table 1): (1) a theoretical study scrutinizing diverse higher music education systems in connection with equality and cultural reproduction (Jääskeläinen, 2021); (2) a systematic review mapping international research on music students' workload (Jääskeläinen et al, 2022b); (3) a methodological study discussing the transcendental phenomenological approach as a method for obtaining a meaningful understanding of music students' experiences in higher education (Jääskeläinen, 2022b); (4) a qualitative study exploring music students' workload experiences in connection with their meaningful engagement in music (Jääskeläinen, 2022a); (5) a mixed-method study shedding light on music students' proactive coping styles in connection with workload and stress (Jääskeläinen et al, 2022a); (6) a mixed-method study examining music students' experienced workload, stress, and livelihoods (Jääskeläinen et al, 2020); and (7) a qualitative study exploring teachers' ways of supporting music students' workload and stress (Jääskeläinen and López-Íñiguez, 2022).…”