With post-secondary students facing a plethora of stressors and having to manage with so much on their plates, this group of the human population is at an increased risk of facing excessive levels of anxiety on a daily basis. As such, it is crucial for researchers to investigate anxiety-reducing interventions that interest and work for university and college students, to allow them to better fulfill their full potential. One such realm of intervention is that of music therapy, as music has shown to be powerful in its effects on the human body and mind; emotionally, physiologically, and socially. With this background, Liu and Li (2023) conducted an experiment to explore the kinds of effects a music therapy intervention could have on a group of college students with high anxiety levels.

The research team began by collecting and assessing college students to find a sample of individuals that qualified as “excessively anxious”. After these assessments, the number of participants totalled to 240 students, between the ages of 17 and 23, who were split randomly into 2 equal-sized groups. One group was the control group, and these individuals received conventional mental health treatment while the other group, the intervention group, attended group, therapist-run, music therapy 3 times a week for a total of 24 sessions. Music therapy sessions included a multitude of music-related avenues including rhythm making with percussion instruments, singing, group musical instrument playing, and listening to and appreciating music. Participants of both groups self-rated their anxiety levels on an anxiety assessment tool, both before starting and after finishing all sessions of treatment. 

While both groups saw a great average reduction in anxiety symptoms following their treatment periods, the group of students who had engaged in music therapy, on average, had significantly greater improvement in symptoms. Both groups started out at nearly equivalent levels of anxiety, the control group averaging at a score of 72.58 and the intervention group averaging at a score of 72.56, but the control group dropped to an average score of 54.46 while the intervention group dropped to an average score of 33.19. 

Liu and Li proposed multiple mechanisms by which the music therapy may have had such an effect on the students in the intervention group. These included music exciting cells/the nervous system, music promoting psychological balance through the balance of different musical elements, and music therapy in the group structure promoting confidence and interpersonal relations. With the results of this study in mind, researchers and post-secondary students may further explore music therapy as an effective way to manage the high anxiety levels within universities and colleges.

Source: Liu, S. & Li, G. (2023). Analysis on the effect of music therapy interventions on college students with excessive anxiety. Occupational Therapy International, 2023, 3351918, https://doi.org/10.1155/2023/3351918