Music and Children's Well-Being

Abstract

Well-being is a desirable combination of high emotional, social, physical, and cognitive health. It is closely related to an element that has existed since the beginning of humankind: music. It is common knowledge that music is an inevitable part of an individual's life; it affects not just the current mood but more importantly, it serves as a means of social bonding, as a tool for therapy, and it affects the overall quality of living. Therefore, according to the Curriculum of the subject Music Culture for Primary Schools and Music Arts for Gymnasium, the teaching of the subject Music culture is intentionally focused on the overall cognitive, psychomotor, and affective dimensions of the child’s development. Through musical activities listening, singing, playing, movement with music, musical games and musical creativity, it is also directed at creating a relaxed class atmosphere, as well as arousing a sense of satisfaction among all students. Students can engage in the aforementioned activities apart of regular classes as well, as part of extracurricular/out-of-school musical activities. This research shows that there are (some) statistically significant differences in the self-assessment of well-being of primary school students, in favor of those who like the subject Music culture, who like listening to classical music in class, and whose household members listen to classical music, while statistically significant difference with regard to (not) attending musical activities was not observed. In fact, students who attend musical activities are (imperceptibly) less satisfied in all life domains. This could be explained by additional obligations, such as preparations for exams and performances, which take place at the time of the survey for the purposes of this research, that is, at the end of the school year. But, it was determined that students who attend extracurricular musical activities have a higher grade point average, which is explained by the acquired good organizational skills necessary for successfully mastering school duties.