Resounding Meaning: A PERMA Wellbeing Profile of Classical Musicians

Abstract

While music has been linked with enhanced wellbeing across a wide variety of contexts, the professional pursuit of a music career is frequently associated with poor psychological health. Most research has focused on assessing negative functioning, and to date, few studies have attempted to profile musicians’ wellbeing using a positive framework. This study aimed to generate a profile that represents indicators of optimal functioning among classical musicians. The PERMA model, which reconciles hedonic and eudaimonic wellbeing, was adopted and its five elements assessed with a sample of professional classical musicians: Positive Emotion, Engagement, Relationships, Meaning and Accomplishment. 601 participants (298 women, 303 men) engaged in careers as orchestral (n = 236), solo (n = 158), chamber (n = 112), and choral musicians (n = 36), as well as composers (n = 30) and conductors (n = 29), answered the PERMA-Profiler, a self-report questionnaire built to assess the five components of PERMA. Results point to high scores across all dimensions, with Meaning emerging as the highest rated dimension. Musicians scored significantly higher than general population indicators on Positive Emotion, Relationships and Meaning. When wellbeing is assessed as positive functioning and not the absence of illbeing, musicians show promising profiles. The reconciliation between these findings and the previous body of research pointing to the music profession as highly challenging for healthy psychological functioning is discussed.

Understanding Wellbeing Among College Music Students and Amateur Musicians in Western Switzerland

“…The QoL of music college students (i.e., Bachelor and Master) and amateur performers who took part in this study was high, mirroring the positive wellbeing profiles reported by Ascenso et al (2018) in their study of professional musicians. Median scores for overall QoL and general health were both higher than 4, and on the four QoL dimensions, they were higher than 70.…”

“…In a recent study conducted by Ascenso et al (2017), musicians highlighted the importance of family, social and work-related connections to ensure positive functioning. Also, practicing music in groups seems to enhance positive social relationship (Clift et al, 2007, 2010; Ascenso et al, 2018). Some musicians even consider chamber and orchestral groups as part of their families, generating a group identity and positive feelings (Ascenso et al, 2017).…”

“…Croom (2012) demonstrated that music can influence positively the five components of wellbeing outlined in Seligman’s PERMA model: positive emotion, engagement, relationships, meaning, and accomplishment (Seligman, 1998). Using the same model, Ascenso et al (2018) tested professional musicians on the five PERMA dimensions and found that musicians scored high on all five, suggesting that, even among professionals, music is linked with positive wellbeing.…”

Exploring Wellbeing and Creativity Through Collaborative Composition as Part of Hull 2017 City of Culture

“…It is interesting to note that the PERMA framework here emerged from an inductive analysis of the observational, video-recall interview, and questionnaire data rather than from a direct application of the framework to the data. The PERMA framework is beginning to be applied to highlight the benefits of musical engagement in various music educational and performance contexts (e.g., Lee et al., 2017; Ascenso et al., 2018). However, our work here suggests that there is much potential for this framework to be used as an evaluative tool for community music and music therapy projects as well.…”

Wellbeing in and Through Performance: Perspectives From Sports and Music

“…Recently, studies have focused on a more positive psychological approach to performance in order to encourage and reinforce health-promoting behaviors in conservatoires and schools of music (see Ascenso et al, 2017Ascenso et al, , 2018Perkins et al, 2017). One study (Antonini Philippe et al, 2019) revealed that, for those students who commit to music professionally, more action is needed to support their health directly and to bolster the value placed on health, both by the musicians themselves as well as their teachers, administrators, and support staff.…”