Hospitalized children's mood differences during play and music therapy.

Full Abstract

BACKGROUND:
Paediatric hospitals are concerned with both the physical and social well-being of their young patients. These institutions often provide play and music therapy to enhance the child's sense of normality. The purpose of this study was to test whether children in a hospital were happier during music rather than play therapy.

METHODS:
Sixty children were observed either during play or music therapy. Happiness was operationally defined as the frequency of smiles during a 3 minute period.

RESULTS:
The results showed that music therapy (M = 12.43, SD = 4.83) led to significantly more smiles than did play therapy (M = 5.83, SD = 3.10).

CONCLUSIONS:
Increasing the amount of time hospitals provide music therapy for child patients may be a way to increase positive effect and ultimately to increase mental and physical well-being in hospitalized children.

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Author information

Author/s: Hendon, C (C); Bohon, L M (LM);

Affiliation: Department of Psychology, California State University, Sacramento, CA 95819, USA. catherinerose08(-atsign-)yahoo.com

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article

Journal: Child: care, health and development (Child Care Health Dev), published in England. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2008-Mar; vol 34 (issue 2) : pp 141-4

Dates: Created 2008/02/08; Completed 2008/04/25;

PMID: 18257785, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 11/6/2008)

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MeSH headings (categories)

This article was linked to the MESH Headings shown below.

Analysis of Variance
Child
Child Behavior - psychology
Child, Hospitalized - psychology
Child, Preschool
Female

Happiness
Humans
Infant
Male
Music Therapy
Play Therapy

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