Caring For, About, and With: Exploring Musical Meaningfulness Among Suzuki Students and Parents

An investigation of the relationships between empathy, music learning, and shared music values may provide new insights into the ways that musical meaningfulness and the symbiotic eudaimonic ideal – “flourishing of oneself and of others” – might be cultivated. We investigated the relationships between parent perceptions of children’s empathy, parent beliefs and values about music, and formal Suzuki training over a period of 6 months, to understand ways in which shared music learning experiences might relate to emotional and musical connections between parents and children. Participants were parents of 48 Suzuki students at a structured Suzuki school in the Midwestern United States. We designed a survey containing an adapted version of the Griffith Empathy Measure for children with additional questions regarding family demographics and values regarding music education. Participants completed the survey at the start of the lesson year, and again 6 months later. Children who persisted in group lessons throughout the study began with significantly higher empathy scores, compared to those children who did not participate in group lessons. Children’s initial empathy scores were significantly positively correlated with parents’ ratings of the importance of music instruction generally, and of Suzuki instruction particularly, to their family. A significant but moderate correlation was found between initial empathy scores and the belief that music would help the child succeed in other areas. This exploratory study highlights potential relationships between family music values, children’s empathy, and participation in group music-making. Our findings are consistent with research demonstrating that child and parent personalities predict the duration of formal music training for children. They also support the philosophy of musical meaningfulness, by suggesting ways in which meaningful connections may be forged simultaneously between people who care for one another, and between people and the activities they care about. Our results point to the importance of providing a variety of music learning activities and structures that reflect the personality, needs, and interests of children and parents. We offer specific recommendations for future research to draw further insights and implications about these relationships.

A comprehensive model of preschool through high school parent involvement with emphasis on the psychological facets

This article will review many forms of home-based parent involvement (e.g., shared reading; books at home; helping with homework; visiting museums; monitoring grades), parent beliefs (e.g., about the importance of school readiness skills; growth mindset for their children), parent expectations, parent-school relationships, and parent autonomy and relatedness support, which all promote achievement. The extent to which the psychological side of parent involvement promotes intrinsic motivation, engagement, and psychological wellbeing for children and adolescents around the world will also be examined. The forms of parent involvement that promote student expectations, student autonomous motivation, and academic engagement should receive more emphasis. In order to help parent involvement researchers, psychologists and educators, a pre-K through 12th grade parent involvement model is proposed. The psychological side of the parent involvement model can be readily memorized with the following acronym: Beliefs, Expectations, Autonomy Support, and Relationships (BEAR). Explanations are provided of how to apply BEAR in the schools and in future intervention research.

SPORT SPECIALIZATION AND COLLEGE SCHOLARSHIP BELIEFS AND FINANCIAL INVESTMENT AMONG HIGH SCHOOL BASEBALL PARENTS

BACKGROUND: Youth athletes are increasingly encouraged to specialize in a single sport and participate on club teams year-round to be offered a college scholarship. For collegiate baseball, only 11.7 scholarships are available for a 35-player team. Presently, the beliefs of parents of baseball athletes towards sport specialization are unknown along with whether they have an accurate understanding of college baseball scholarship availability. PURPOSE: To describe the beliefs of parents of high school baseball players regarding sport specialization and college scholarships. A secondary purpose was to compare child baseball participation characteristics by parent median household income (MHI) categories. METHODS: During the 2019 spring baseball season, 155 parents (female N=82 (52.9%), age: 49.45.5 years) of high school baseball players from six San Diego county high schools completed an anonymous questionnaire concerning parent and child demographics, child baseball participation information (e.g., club baseball team participation), money spent on their child’s baseball participation, sport specialization status, and parent beliefs regarding sport specialization and college scholarships. Sport specialization status was determined using a validated 3-point specialization scale. Parent MHI was estimated using residence zip code and categorized into MHI tertiles (low, middle, high). RESULTS: Seventy-three parents (47.7%) classified their children as highly specialized and 110 parents (71.0%) reported their child played club baseball in addition to their high school team. Parents reported spending a median of $3000 [$1500-6000] on their child’s baseball participation during the previous year. Only 44 parents (28.4%) reported being concerned about sport specialization. Most parents (69.9%) believed that specialization would increase their child’s chances of making a college team. Parents underestimated the number of college baseball scholarships available per team (median [IQR]: 5 [0-5]), but 55 parents (35.9%) believed it was “somewhat” or “very likely” their child would receive a college baseball scholarship. Compared to low MHI parents, high MHI parents were more likely to classify their child as highly specialized (65.8% vs. 31.7%, p=0.02), and have a child participating in club baseball (82.1% vs. 58.3%, p=0.02). CONCLUSIONS: Parents who reported a greater financial investment in their child’s baseball participation believed it would improve their child’s sport performance to play college baseball. Despite having a realistic understanding of the limited college scholarships available, parents were optimistic that their child would receive a baseball scholarship. The current year-round, highly specialized environment of youth sports in the United States may favor families with more financial resources.