Music therapy intervention to promote prosociality and to reduce the risk of aggression in children of primary basic and preschool in Bogota, Colombia

Abstract

Our purpose in this intervention was to promote prosociality and to reduce the aggressiveness risk between primary and preschool students by implementing music therapy sessions. A quasi experimental study was adopted, considering pre-test and pos-test, as part of a model program of early prevention of aggressiveness at a secondary level focused on a specific group of children. Eighteen subjects between 5 and 9 years old were divided into three groups. The first group received the whole music therapy intervention (30 sessions), the second group received an incomplete music therapy treatment (15 sessions) and the third group or control group didnt get any intervention. Results showed that music therapy had significant effects on direct aggressiveness in the experimental groups one and two, whereas it didnt have any important result on indirect aggressiveness for the same groups. In reference to prosociality, music therapy intervention only affected the second group. In this specific case we concluded that music therapy represents an efficient secondary prevention strategy to reduce the direct aggressiveness risk.

Keywords

• Aggressiveness
• prosociality
• prevention
• music therapy.