The Impacts of Bullying and Music Therapy Treatment Options

Creator

Chih-Chi Huang, Southwestern Oklahoma State University
Sophia Lee, Southwestern Oklahoma State University

Preview

Creation Date

4-20-2023

Description

Poster presented at the 2023 SWOSU Research and Scholarly Activity fair.

Pictured here is student Chih-Chi Huang

This poster presentation intends to first summarize the facts of bullying, including its definition, statistics, subcategories, varieties, causes, epidemiology, etc., as well as its impacts. Different theoretical frameworks supporting the treatment strategies are compared for their pros and cons, and a closer discussion is on the pros and cons of proposed music therapy interventions for school-age bullies and victims by Shafer and Silverman (2013). Derived from the Social Learning Theory and Orff’s Music Education philosophy, the interventions intended to improve peer relationships, self-management, and social skills by integrating strategies of these interventions into their daily lives and creating behavioral coping strategies for psychological distress. Due to the fact that the proposed interventions in the study were not incorporated into a protocol, a pilot study is proposed to investigate the effectiveness of the proposed music therapy interventions for school-age bullies and victims. Sixteen participants the age of 10-18 self-identified via Adolescent Peer Relation Instrument with the experiences of bullying or being bullied with parental consent and their own assent will be recruited and randomly assigned to two groups for ten weeks. The participants in the experimental group will receive music therapy treatment consisting of rhythm chanting with body percussion “Just Walk Away” and “Stop and Breathe,” lyric analysis, lyric replacement songwriting, and role-play. The participants in the control group will receive standardized care for their experiences of bullying. Qualitative data such as the self-reflection of participants, as well as program surveys by teachers, and administrators, and quantitative results of the music therapy group versus the control group outcome comparison will be incorporated for the mixed-method study.