Music Therapy with Bereaved Teenagers: A Mixed Methods Perspective

Abstract

Qualitative investigations have indicated that music therapy groups may be beneficial for bereaved teenagers. The existing relationship between young people and music serves as a platform for connectedness and emotional expression that is utilised within a therapeutic, support group format. This investigation confirms this suggestion through grounded theory analysis of focus group interviews. Changes in self-perception were not found as a result of participation, however practically significant results were found on adolescent coping. These cannot be generalized because of the small sample size. Grief specific tools are recommended for use in future investigations in order to capture the emotional impact of music therapy grief work with adolescents.

This study was funded by the Australian Research Discovery Grants (# 066735).

Notes

¹Ethics approval was received from the Victorian Department of Education (#SOS003369) and the University of Melbourne (#0602957) in order to undertake this study.

² Major category and properties are both grounded theory terminology.