The role of community-based music and sports programmes in parental views of children’s social skills and personality

In this article, we report on parental perceptions of socio-emotional skills and personality of children who were involved in community-based music and sports extracurricular (EC) programmes, and a group of children not participating in EC activities. This study is part of the USC brain and music project that investigated the effects of music education on the cognitive and socioemotional development of children from underserved neighbourhoods in Los Angeles for 5 consecutive years. Our primary aim with this study was to examine parental views on the potential effects of EC programmes on children’s socio-emotional skills and personality. Parents were interviewed yearly and were asked to rate their child’s skills and personality. After four years, parents of children involved in EC activities rated their children higher on the emotional stability personality trait, lower on aggression and lower on hyperactivity compared to children not involved in EC activities despite no differences in these measures at the beginning of the study and before children’s entry into their programmes. These and other findings are discussed in light of Bronfenbrenner and Morris’s Bioecological Model of Human Development. The implications for community music are also outlined.