Can passive listening to classical music reduce anxiety level of lower primary school students in Hong Kong?

Abstract

Anxiety can be explained by genetics, biology, and environmental contexts such as culture, family and school. Anxiety in children are strongly affected by family and school settings. To date, most intervention measures are of remediating nature and mostly administered by helping professionals (e.g., high-cost evidence-based therapies such as cognitive behavioural therapies). Cost-effective and -efficient preventive measures are relatively limited. Since listening to music, especially to classical music, can have calming and relaxing effect, as well as significant beneficial effects on listeners’ physiological and psychological responses, the present research investigated the effectiveness of ambient classical music for reducing anxiety level in lower primary school students in Hong Kong. Results indicated significant results of the intervention effect to generally reduce anxiety level of young children and the effect were found to be sustainable for four weeks of time.