The Association Between Music Engagement, Academic Performance, and Self-Esteem in Seventh Graders: A Secondary Data Analysis

Abstract

<h3>Research Objectives</h3> To examine if engaging in musical activities is associated with self-esteem or, secondarily, with higher academic achievement. <h3>Design</h3> Survey, logistic regression. <h3>Setting</h3> United States, educational settings. <h3>Participants</h3> 3,675 7th graders surveyed from the Longitudinal Study of American Youth's 2015 cohort. <h3>Interventions</h3> Not applicable. <h3>Main Outcome Measures</h3> The primary independent variable was music engagement, which included all of the following: going to the symphony, playing a musical instrument over the summer, and participating in a music group in school. Self-esteem was measured using a sum score of six Likert-scale items, including prompts such as "I have a positive attitude toward myself." Academic performance was a self-reported measure of grades. <h3>Results</h3> Music engagement was a significant predictor of academic performance (p <.001, OR=1.97, 95%CI =1.35, 2.86). Students who engaged in music had 1.97 times larger odds of having better academic performance, which represented a small to moderate magnitude of association. The magnitude of the association between music and self-esteem was positive (OR=1.18, 95%CI=0.99, 1.42) but not statistically significant (p=.072). An examination of the demographic variables indicated that academic performance was the strongest predictor of self-esteem (OR=2.76, 95% CI=2.18, 3.49). Additionally, males had larger odds of having higher self-esteem than females, students from rural communities had lower odds of having higher self-esteem than students from suburban communities, and students in the West had lower odds of having self-esteem than students in the Midwest. <h3>Conclusions</h3> These positive associations are crucial to understand, as music is a modifiable factor (unlike other demographic variables) that may support self-esteem and academic performance and impact adolescents' lives into adulthood. Expanding music resources to subgroups at risk for lower self-esteem, such as rural areas and in the West, may provide more opportunities for students' participation which in turn may positively influence academic performance and self-esteem. <h3>Author(s) Disclosures</h3> None.