Maternal engagement with music up to nine months post-birth: findings from a cross-sectional study in England

Fancourt, D. and Perkins, R. (2017) Maternal engagement with music up to nine months post-birth: findings from a cross-sectional study in England. Psychology of Music, 46 (2) pp. 238-251. ISSN 0305-7356 (print) 1741-3087 (online)

Abstract

There is significant evidence of the benefits of music for babies and emerging evidence that music may also benefit mothers’ wellbeing. However, there is a lack of current large-scale data documenting maternal engagement with music in England. This cross-sectional survey study used descriptive and inferential statistics to examine how 473 mothers living in England engaged with music between 1-9 months post-birth, and regression models to examine demographic and musical predictors of this engagement. Findings indicate that the most frequently reported musical activities were daily listening to music (71%) and daily singing to babies (59%). Patterns of musical engagement differ by infant age, with mothers of 4-9 month old babies reporting more frequent singing and music class attendance compared with mothers of 1-3 month old babies. Mothers with previous or recent experience of music were more likely to engage in other musical activities, but musical engagement did not appear to be explained by socio-economic factors including years in education, marital status or household income. Findings could support practitioners in designing music activities for mothers, in particular highlighting the need for supporting mothers with very young infants, with little or no previous musical experience or with more than one child.

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