Mothers as Home DJs: Recorded Music and Young Children’s Well-Being During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to disrupt our lives in unimagined ways, families are reinventing daily rituals, and this is likely true for musical rituals. This study explored how parents with young children used recorded music in their everyday lives during the pandemic. Mothers (N = 19) of child(ren) aged 18 months to 5 years living in the United States played the role of home DJ over a period of one week by strategically crafting the sonic home environment, based on resources provided by the authors, in response to their children’s mood and state. Using a newly developed data collection tool, inspired by the Experience Sampling Method, a total of 197 episodes were collected about children’s engagement with recorded music. Findings showed that while mothers utilized music to fulfill various emotional needs, they tended to use it to maintain or reinforce their child’s positive mood rather than to improve a negative mood. Also, mothers’ reports suggested various ways that young children engaged with music, being aligned with the multimodal nature of their musical experiences. Lastly, mothers reported that their strategic approaches to use recorded music seemed to help their children feel less distressed and happier, and this, in turn, aided in the reduction of some of the burdens associated with parenting.

Music for hedonia and eudaimonia during pandemic social isolation

“…While most people experienced equally strong emotions in response to music during lockdown compared to before, increases were slightly more frequent than decreases-but this was also the case for non-music-induced emotions (Ziv & Hollander-Shabtai, 2021). Musical activities in children increased during lockdown, and parents used music significantly more for emotion regulation and for connecting socially with their offspring (Cho & Ilari, 2021;Ribeiro et al, 2021a;Steinberg et al, 2021). Taken together, these results strongly confirm pre-pandemic findings that music listening is capable of effectively enhancing wellbeing (Randall & Rickard, 2017;Saarikallio, 2011).…”

Music Uses in Preschool Classrooms in the U.S.: A Multiple-Methods Study

“…Despite the methodological limitations noted, our research adds to a body of literature documenting adult-child musical experiences during COVID-19. Caregivers of young children have turned to musical engagement frequently during the pandemic, using musical recordings and joint musical activities to connect with their children and help children regulate their emotions (Cho & Ilari, 2021;Steinberg et al, 2021). Similarly, secondary music educators in Australia prioritized building relationships with their students through music (de Bruin, 2021).…”

Music in Quarantine: Connections Between Changes in Lifestyle, Psychological States, and Musical Behaviors During COVID-19 Pandemic

“…The increase in "play with children" seems to reflect that the adults had to spend a long time taking care of children during school closures. Researchers have reported that parents increasingly use music to moderate and enhance children's emotions during SiP (Cho and Ilari, 2021;Ribeiro et al, 2021a;Steinberg et al, 2021). We presume that our results reflect the behavior of caregivers.…”