Musical Training to Enhance Resilience in Children From Low-income Families

NCT05346965 | Completed

• 1 other identifier: 2021.590-T
• Study Type: interventional
• Target: 64
• Locations: 1 country
• Sites: 1

Brief Summary

Child poverty is a prominent global health issue owing to its detrimental impact on a child's physical and psychosocial well-being. Nearly 356 million children lived in extreme poverty globally before the pandemic and this is estimated to worsen significantly. children growing up in poverty are more vulnerable to its effect and have an increased risk of psychosocial and developmental problems than children from affluent families. The impact of poverty is not only immediate during childhood but can persist into adulthood. Previous studies have shown that Chinese children from low-income families reported significantly higher levels of depressive symptoms, lower levels of self-esteem, quality of life, and life satisfaction than children from affluent families. Recent studies have revealed the promising effects of musical training to promote psychological well-being among children and adolescents and paediatric brain tumour survivors, improving psychosocial skills of children with autism, to enhance the quality of life and psychological health by promoting positive emotions and cognitive and social development. Promoting the psychological health of school-aged children from low-income families through enhancing their resilience has received limited research attention. Additionally, there is a lack of intervention studies to promote resilience in school-aged children from low-income families. This proposed research, therefore, aims to conduct a pilot randomised controlled trial to determine the feasibility, acceptability and preliminary effects of a musical training programme in enhancing resilience and self-esteem, reducing depressive symptoms and improving the quality of life among children from low-income families. The findings from the study could inform the policymakers and healthcare professionals in health services design and the importance of advocating the psychological needs of children from low-income families by providing adequate community resources and support. If the programme demonstrates its effectiveness in promoting resilience and self-esteem among children from low-income families, further implementation could be done to maintain its sustainability in the community. Most importantly, the programme may potentially enhance the resilience of the vulnerable children from low-income families to combat poverty and hence break the intergenerational transmission of poverty.

Conditions

Resilience

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcomes (1)

• Resilience - Resilience Scale for Children

  Children's resilience will be measured by the Resilience Scale for Children- 10 (RS10) which was developed based on the Resilience Scale originally developed by Wagnild and Young. Total scores ranging from 10 to 40, with higher scores indicate higher levels of resilience.

  6-month follow-up

Secondary Outcomes (4)

• Level of self-esteem - Rosenberg self-esteem scale

  Baseline, and 6-month follow-up

• Depressive symptoms - Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale

  Baseline, and 6-month follow-up

• Quality of life - Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory 4.0 Generic Core

  Baseline, and 6-month follow-up

• Acceptability and satisfaction

  6-month follow-up

Study Arms (2)

Musical training programme

EXPERIMENTAL

Participants in the experimental group received a weekly 1-hour musical training lesson for 6 months delivered by professionally qualified musicians. The participants will be assigned a particular musical instrument to learn, and this is based on their interests as well as their capabilities (i.e., fine motor skills), The training will begin at the lowest level (hitting simple notes) and end at the highest level (able to play an entire song).

Behavioral: Musical training

Wait-list control group

ACTIVE COMPARATOR

To ensure equity of access to potentially effective intervention (i.e. musical training programme), participants in the wait-list control group will receive the same musical training programme as participants in the intervention group after the completion of all assessments.

Behavioral: Musical training

Interventions

Musical training BEHAVIORAL

The musical training intervention comprised songs, rhythm and visual creativity to encourage the children to experience music-making as fun.

Musical training programme; Wait-list control group

Eligibility Criteria

• Age: 8 Years - 12 Years
• Sex: all
• Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Age Groups: Child (0-17)

You may qualify if:

• Chinese children aged between 8-12 years
• able to read Chinese and communicate in Cantonese
• from low-income families, that is, less than half the median monthly household income or recipients of Comprehensive Social Security Assistance

You may not qualify if:

• children who are currently receiving or had received musical training before the study
• children have chronic diseases, cognitive and learning difficulties

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Chinese University of Hong Kong: lead
• Alice Ho Miu Ling Nethersole Hospital: collaborator

Study Sites (1)

The Chinese University of Hong Kong

Hong Kong, Hong Kong

Location

Study Officials

• Ankie Tan Cheung, PhD

  Chinese University of Hong Kong

  PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

Study Design

• Study Type: interventional
• Phase: not applicable
• Allocation: RANDOMIZED
• Masking: SINGLE
• Who Masked: OUTCOMES ASSESSOR
• Purpose: SUPPORTIVE CARE
• Intervention Model: PARALLEL
• Sponsor Type: OTHER
• Responsible Party: PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR
• PI Title: Principal Investigator

Study Record Dates

• First Submitted: April 20, 2022
• First Posted: April 26, 2022
• Study Start: May 16, 2022
• Primary Completion: July 3, 2023
• Study Completion: July 3, 2023
• Last Updated: August 1, 2023

Record last verified: 2023-07

Data Sharing

• IPD Sharing: Will not share

Locations

HK (1)