Background: Making music and listening to music have been found to contribute to positive mental health. In this study, we examined whether educational music intervention improved emotion regulation skills among first-year university music education students.Methods: The design of the study consisted of a randomized controlled trial with a treatment group as well as a control group. Students were randomly distributed to an intervention group and a control group. Students in the intervention group participated in twice-weekly group sessions for 8 weeks that discussed problem-solving skills, calming techniques, and retraining attributions. Instruments for data collection were; the Emotion Regulation Skills Scale and the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire.Results: Results demonstrate that educational music intervention can facilitate the development of emotional regulation skills in undergraduate students majoring in music education. Conclusion:Based on the results of this study, educational music intervention is effective in enhancing emotional regulation among first-year undergraduate music education students. The educational music program provides participants with the opportunity to enhance their ability to regulate their emotions.

Background: Studies reporting the incidence of depression among medical students have been on the increase. This research sought to determine whether rational emotive behavior therapy (REBT) can be applied to help manage depression in Nigerian undergraduate medical students. Methods: A randomized pretest/posttest control group design was used in this study. Ninety medical students with depression participated in the study and were assisted using the REBT depression manual. Using a mixed-model repeated measures analysis of variance, the researchers examined the intervention data. Results: The depressive symptoms and its associated irrational beliefs among medical students in the treatment arm were significantly altered by REBT intervention at posttest and this positive outcome was sustained at follow-up in contrast to the control arm. Conclusion: REBT intervention significantly improves medical students’ ability to overcome depression and irrational beliefs. Similar studies could be conducted in a variety of academic settings where these students can be found to expand the findings of this study.

Background: Students' aggressive behavior and its negative implications have continued to intrigue researchers. Thus, the present study examined the effect of educational music intervention in reducing aggressive behavior among college students.Method: Quantitative data were collected from 30 college student participants in the treatment group and 30 college student participants in the control group using the teacher-rating of students' aggressive behaviors and self-rated aggression scale instruments. This study adopted the IBM SPSS version 25 program and JASP statistical program for data analysis.Results: The result of the study indicated that college students in the educational music group showed considerable mean decline in aggressive behavior at posttest compared to their counterparts in the control group. At follow-up, it was revealed that educational music intervention consistently reduced the college students' aggressive behavior. Conclusion:Educational music intervention proved to be a helpful intervention in reducing Nigerian college students' aggressive behavior. In light of this, it would be beneficial to implement educational music intervention to reduce aggressive behavior among college students in other localities.Abbreviations: SRAS = self-rated aggression scale, TRAB = teacher-rating of students' aggressive behaviors.

Background: The effectiveness of educational music training in lowering stress and performance anxiety among first-year undergraduate music education students is an understudied area. The goal of this study was to determine if educational music training affects first-year undergraduate music education students’ stress and anxiety associated with musical performance. Methods: A randomized controlled trial design was used in this study. A waiting list group of 35 students and an educational music training intervention group of 35 first-year undergraduate music education students were randomized for the study to commence. The Kenny music performance anxiety (MPA) scale and perceived stress scale (PSS) were used as outcome measures. Results: The findings show that, among first-year undergraduate music education students, educational music training decreased their stress level associated with music performance [F(1, 68) = 390.751; P = .001, ηp2 = 0.270]. It was also found that after the educational music training, the students reported decreased anxiety level associated with music performance [F(1, 68) = 1375.495; P = .001, ηp2 = 0.344]. Significant interaction effects of educational music training and time on students’ stress [F(2, 68) = 127.301; P = .001] and anxiety levels [F(2, 68) = 260.535; P = .001] were also found. Conclusion: Educational music intervention can be successful as a means of reducing anxiety and stress in undergraduate music education students during the first year of study.