Musical Training to Enhance Resilience in Children From Low-income Families

NCT ID: NCT05346965

Last Updated: 2023-08-01

Basic Information

• Recruitment Status: COMPLETED
• Clinical Phase: NA
• Total Enrollment: 64 participants
• Study Classification: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Start Date: 2022-05-16
• Study Completion Date: 2023-07-03

Brief Summary

Child poverty is a prominent global health issue owing to its detrimental impact on a child's physical and psychosocial well-being. Nearly 356 million children lived in extreme poverty globally before the pandemic and this is estimated to worsen significantly. children growing up in poverty are more vulnerable to its effect and have an increased risk of psychosocial and developmental problems than children from affluent families. The impact of poverty is not only immediate during childhood but can persist into adulthood. Previous studies have shown that Chinese children from low-income families reported significantly higher levels of depressive symptoms, lower levels of self-esteem, quality of life, and life satisfaction than children from affluent families.

Recent studies have revealed the promising effects of musical training to promote psychological well-being among children and adolescents and paediatric brain tumour survivors, improving psychosocial skills of children with autism, to enhance the quality of life and psychological health by promoting positive emotions and cognitive and social development.

Promoting the psychological health of school-aged children from low-income families through enhancing their resilience has received limited research attention. Additionally, there is a lack of intervention studies to promote resilience in school-aged children from low-income families. This proposed research, therefore, aims to conduct a pilot randomised controlled trial to determine the feasibility, acceptability and preliminary effects of a musical training programme in enhancing resilience and self-esteem, reducing depressive symptoms and improving the quality of life among children from low-income families.

The findings from the study could inform the policymakers and healthcare professionals in health services design and the importance of advocating the psychological needs of children from low-income families by providing adequate community resources and support. If the programme demonstrates its effectiveness in promoting resilience and self-esteem among children from low-income families, further implementation could be done to maintain its sustainability in the community. Most importantly, the programme may potentially enhance the resilience of the vulnerable children from low-income families to combat poverty and hence break the intergenerational transmission of poverty.

Conditions

Resilience

Study Design

• Allocation Method: RANDOMIZED
• Intervention Model: PARALLEL
• Primary Study Purpose: SUPPORTIVE_CARE
• Blinding Strategy: SINGLE

Study Groups

Musical training programme

Participants in the experimental group received a weekly 1-hour musical training lesson for 6 months delivered by professionally qualified musicians. The participants will be assigned a particular musical instrument to learn, and this is based on their interests as well as their capabilities (i.e., fine motor skills), The training will begin at the lowest level (hitting simple notes) and end at the highest level (able to play an entire song).

Group Type: EXPERIMENTAL

Musical training

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

The musical training intervention comprised songs, rhythm and visual creativity to encourage the children to experience music-making as fun.

Wait-list control group

To ensure equity of access to potentially effective intervention (i.e. musical training programme), participants in the wait-list control group will receive the same musical training programme as participants in the intervention group after the completion of all assessments.

Group Type: ACTIVE_COMPARATOR

Musical training

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

The musical training intervention comprised songs, rhythm and visual creativity to encourage the children to experience music-making as fun.

Interventions

Musical training

The musical training intervention comprised songs, rhythm and visual creativity to encourage the children to experience music-making as fun.

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Eligibility Criteria

Inclusion Criteria

• Chinese children aged between 8-12 years
• able to read Chinese and communicate in Cantonese
• from low-income families, that is, less than half the median monthly household income or recipients of Comprehensive Social Security Assistance

Exclusion Criteria

• children who are currently receiving or had received musical training before the study
• children have chronic diseases, cognitive and learning difficulties

• Minimum Eligible Age: 8 Years
• Maximum Eligible Age: 12 Years
• Eligible Sex: ALL
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes

Sponsors

Alice Ho Miu Ling Nethersole Hospital

OTHER

Sponsor Role: collaborator

Chinese University of Hong Kong

OTHER

Sponsor Role: lead

Responsible Party

Cheung Tan

Principal Investigator

Responsibility Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

Principal Investigators

Ankie Tan Cheung, PhD

Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

Chinese University of Hong Kong

Locations

The Chinese University of Hong Kong

Hong Kong, , Hong Kong

Countries

Hong Kong

Other Identifiers

2021.590-T

Identifier Type: -

Identifier Source: org_study_id