Musical Engagement and Parent-Child Attachment in Families with Young Children During the Covid-19 Pandemic

Abstract

The onset of the Covid-19 pandemic has disrupted the lives of families in the United States and across the world, impacting parent mental health and stress, and in turn, the parent-child relationship. Music is a common parent-child activity and has been found to positively impact relationships, but little is known about music’s role in parent-child interactions during a pandemic. The current study utilized an online questionnaire to assess the use of music in the home of young children and their parents in the USA and Canada during Covid-19 and its relationship with parents’ affective attachment with their child. Musical activity was high for both parents and children. Parents reported using music for both emotion regulation and to socially connect with their children. Parent-child musical engagement was associated with parent-child attachment, controlling for relevant parent variables including parent distress, efficacy, education and parent-child engagement in non-musical activities. These results indicate that music may be an effective tool for building and maintaining parent-child relationships during a period of uncertainty and change.

Music Uses in Preschool Classrooms in the U.S.: A Multiple-Methods Study

“…Despite the methodological limitations noted, our research adds to a body of literature documenting adult-child musical experiences during COVID-19. Caregivers of young children have turned to musical engagement frequently during the pandemic, using musical recordings and joint musical activities to connect with their children and help children regulate their emotions (Cho & Ilari, 2021;Steinberg et al, 2021). Similarly, secondary music educators in Australia prioritized building relationships with their students through music (de Bruin, 2021).…”

Musical Engagement and Parent-Child Attachment in Families With Young Children During the Covid-19 Pandemic

“…We would like to thank Laura Cirelli, Ph.D., for her assistance with recruitment. A previous version of this work was posted as a preprint on PsyArXiv (Steinberg et al, 2020a).…”

“I don’t know how musically creative they should be at that age”: A qualitative study of parents’ and teachers’ beliefs about young children’s creative and musical capacities

“…During the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been a growth in parent–child musical activities because of the dual role that parents acquired as educators (Cho & Ilari, 2021; Ribeiro et al, 2021; Steinberg et al, 2021). Interestingly, music provided a space for expression and regulation of children’s emotions and to connect to others, for example, by playing music and dancing (Steinberg et al, 2021). This suggests that parents experience and perceive music as having a positive effect on their family’s wellbeing (Ribeiro et al, 2021).…”