Abstract
The majority of children under the age of 5 appear to show spontaneous enjoyment of singing, being exposed to music and interacting with musical instruments, but whether variations in engaging in such activities in the home could contribute to developmental outcomes is still largely unknown. Critically, researchers lack a comprehensive instrument with good psychometric properties to assess the home musical environment from infancy to the preschool years. To address this gap, this paper presents two studies that describe the development and validation of the Music@Home questionnaire, which comprises two versions: Infant and Preschool. In Study 1, an initial pool of items was generated and administered to a wide audience of parents (n = 287 for the Infant, n = 347 for the Preschool version). Exploratory factor analysis was used to identify different dimensions comprising the home musical environment of both infants and pre-schoolers, and to reduce the initial pool of items to a smaller number of meaningful items. In Study 2, convergent and divergent validity and internal and test-retest reliability of the new instrument were established, using data from a different sample of participants (n = 213 for the Infant, n = 213 for the Preschool version). The second study also investigated associations between the Music@Home and musical characteristics of the parents, such as their musical education and personal engagement with music. Overall, the Music@Home constitutes a novel, valid and reliable instrument that allows for the systematic assessment of distinct aspects of the home musical environment in families with children under the age of 5. Furthermore, the Infant and Preschool versions of the Music@Home present differential associations with musical characteristics of the parents opening a new area of inquiry into how musical exposure and interaction in the home may vary across different developmental stages.
Highlights
An increasing body of research has recently revealed beneficial effects of formal musical experience on early cognitive and linguistic development (e.g., [1,2]), with the majority of studies focusing on formal musical training given in classrooms (e.g., [3])
We suggest that the quantity and quality of informal musical activities may have a specific influence on the development of social, cognitive and linguistic abilities of the child, over and above influences emanating from a general enriched home environment
It was suggested that all items of the Music@Home-Preschool measure a general construct while in addition facets of this construct may exist that are independent of each other after accounting for the general construct
Summary
An increasing body of research has recently revealed beneficial effects of formal musical experience on early cognitive and linguistic development (e.g., [1,2]), with the majority of studies focusing on formal musical training given in classrooms (e.g., [3]). Music@Home questionnaire development and validation the age of 5 musical experience consists of everyday informal musical interaction in the form of singing songs, dancing, being exposed to recorded music and playing musical games in the home environment (for a review see [4]). This type of shared experience can potentially support learning, by providing a pleasant framework in which parents engage in activities with their children. We suggest that the quantity and quality of informal musical activities may have a specific influence on the development of social, cognitive and linguistic abilities of the child, over and above influences emanating from a general enriched home environment
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