How Can We Help? Wellbeing Interventions for Choral Music Ensembles

Part of paid clinical trials in Sugar Land, Texas.

Sponsor
Jess Walls
Study ID
NCT07298031
Status
Not Yet Recruiting

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Conditions

  • Anxiety
  • Performance Anxiety
  • Well-Being (Psychological Flourishing)

Eligibility Criteria

Sex
ALL
Age
10 Years - 20 Years
Healthy Volunteers
Accepted

Interventions

  • Box breathing — BEHAVIORAL
    Students will be led through a standard choral music breathing technique known as abdominal breathing, where they are reminded that a deep breath should cause your abdomen to expand to make more room in the lungs for air. After 2-3 standard deep breaths, they will be introduced to box breathing, which is an inhale for 4 beats, hold for 4 beats, exhale for 4 beats, hold for 4 beats, and repeat. Students will be told that this technique is useful for improving choral singing but can also be used in situations where the student is experiencing anxiety.
  • Magnify — BEHAVIORAL
    This is a mindfulness-based technique that pulls from Cognitive Behavior Therapy and Dialectical Behavior Therapy techniques that is referred to colloquially as "what would happen if" or "magnify", used to examine cognitive distortions and reframe them to be more in line with reality. Students will be asked to think about an upcoming performance that may make them feel anxious and come up with a catastrophic scenario where everything that could possibly go wrong does go wrong, making note of the likelihood of the catastrophe. Students will internally come up with a best-case scenario and likelihood, and finally a most likely scenario somewhere between the best and worst case options.
  • Emotion regulation through choral literature — BEHAVIORAL
    This intervention will use choral music literature to help students identify emotions, connect those emotions to their own experiences, and use the choral music literature to experience and work through those emotions in a safe environment. The choir will read through the lyrics of the chosen song, then narrow down the emotions referred to in the song using a list of possible emotions provided by the researcher. Students will recall an event in their own lives where they experienced that emotion, which they are not required to share out loud. With that emotion in mind, students will sing through the choral music piece, taking care to connect their own emotional experience with what they are singing. After the song, students will be asked to reflect on whether their own experiences with that emotion changed their perspective on the song, and whether singing about the emotion helped them work through their own situations and regulate their feelings.

Study Details

The goal of this clinical trial is to learn if psychology and music based interventions can impact anxiety and overall wellbeing in adolescents enrolled in choral music classes. The main questions it aims to answer are: Do specific psychology and music based breathing interventions impact anxiety and overall wellbeing in adolescents? Do specific psychology and music based performance anxiety reduction interventions impact anxiety and overall wellbeing in adolescents? Do specific psychology and music based emotion regulation interventions impact anxiety and overall wellbeing in adolescents? Researchers will compare results of pre-test data, post-test data, qualitative interviews, and surveys of adult choral directors to see if there is a measurable impact on adolescent anxiety and overall wellbeing. Participants will: * Use box breathing during choral music warm-ups to connect choral breathing to breathing for anxiety reduction * Use "magnify" technique to compare cognitive distortions regarding an upcoming performance that may cause anxiety to the most likely realistic outcome * Use emotion regulation through song lyrics technique to connect lyrics of choral music repertoire to participants experienced emotions

Key Dates

Start date
Jan 31, 2026
Status verified
Dec 2025
Primary completion
Feb 28, 2026
Completion
Apr 30, 2026

Study Design

Enrollment
200 participants (estimated)
Allocation
NA
Intervention model
SINGLE_GROUP
Primary purpose
TREATMENT

Arms

  • Experimental: Choral Interventions
    The interventions include box breathing, "Magnify", and emotion regulation through choral literature.

Primary Outcome Measure

Change in Anxiety [ Time Frame: From enrollment to choir director survey 4 weeks later ]

Central Contacts

Locations (1)

FacilityCityStateZIPSite coordinators
Fort Bend ISDSugar LandTexas77479
Gene Holkup
[email protected]
281-634-5148
[email protected]
Jess Walls, PhD Candidate (PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR)

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By research site
Fort Bend ISD· Sugar Land, TX

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