Delineating the Benefits of Arts Education for Children’s Socioemotional Development

Abstract

In this paper, we argue that in order for the study of arts education to continue to advance, we must delineate the effects of particular forms of arts education, offered in certain contexts, on specific domains of children’s socioemotional development. We explain why formulating precise hypotheses about the effects of arts education on children’s socioemotional development requires a differentiated definition of each arts education program or activity in question, as well as a consideration of both the immediate and broader contexts in which that program or activity occurs. We then offer the New Victory Theater’s Schools with Performing Arts Reach Kids (SPARK) program as an illustrative example of how these considerations allow for the refinement of hypotheses about the impact of arts education on children’s socioemotional development.

More light about each other: Theater education as a context for developing social awareness and relationship skills.

“…Therefore, we must create measures, including complementary measures, that can accomplish this. As we have noted elsewhere (Holochwost et al, 2021), the distinction between near and far transfer (Barnett & Ceci, 2002) suggests two possibilities. On one hand, arts experiences might promote the development of socioemotional skills only in contexts that are very similar to the contexts in which those skills are learned.…”

Movement-based music in the classroom: Investigating the effects of music programs incorporating body movement in primary school children.

“…The gains that can be achieved through long-term music instruction during childhood have proven to be independent of age per se (Sala & Gobet, 2020); rather, the benefits might be influenced by the child’s current level of functioning. The developmental course of a domain determines the extent to which domain-specific skills can be shaped over the course of music education (Holochwost et al., 2021). Our data showed great interindividual variability within the participating classes in all skill areas; however, we did not examine individual developmental trajectories that might have also varied substantially across children.…”

“…Therefore, it seems likely that each music program incorporating body movement might have its own potential to support improvements in particular domains, depending on its contextual characteristics, which challenge the comparability of different studies and the generalization of their results. An answer to these issues would be the unequivocal formulation of hypotheses specifying the form and context of education and the domains under investigation (Holochwost et al., 2021). This differentiation might enable the testing of whether in-school and out-of-school music education could result in similar benefits when provided under same conditions for the training of the same domain.…”

“…Despite these promising findings, we cannot draw an overall conclusion regarding the efficacy of music instruction due to their differences in the focus areas and length of research, the content of the curricula, and the size of groups applied. The lack of explicit differentiation between the effects of diverse types of music programs targeting the training of different domains in various contexts critically challenge the generalization of the results in the field (for a framework, see Holochwost et al., 2021).…”

Behind the Paintbrush: Understanding the Impact of Visual Arts-Based Research (ABR) in the Lives of Disabled Children and Youth as well as Methodological Insights in ABR Application

“…Finally, intersections may exist between arts education domains and genres. Arts education can also be used to teach about subjects unrelated to the arts as well (Holochwost, Goldstein, & Wolf, 2021). In our paper, we are not considering arts education.…”