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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Psychol.
Sec. Educational Psychology
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1467830

Effect of group impromptu music therapy on improving test anxiety and emotional regulation ability in medical students

Provisionally accepted
Li Song Li Song *Rong Xiao Rong Xiao Changjing Wang Changjing Wang Chaoyang Li Chaoyang Li Qi Liu Qi Liu Ying Zhang Ying Zhang Zhen Liu Zhen Liu Lei Zhang Lei Zhang Ming Zhang Ming Zhang
  • Qingdao University, Qingdao, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Test anxiety, a prevalent psychological issue among medical students, can profoundly impact their social, behavioral, and emotional development. This condition is significantly associated with challenges in emotional regulation, and to date, no effective clinical treatment has been established to address it. This study aimed to investigate the potential benefits and effects of group impromptu music therapy (GIMT) on enhancing emotional regulation skills and alleviating test anxiety in medical students. A total of 29 participants in the experimental group and 30 participants in the control group were finally included for data analysis. Four weeks prior to the final exams, the experimental group commenced GIMT treatment, while the control group did not receive any intervention. Following the four-week intervention period, both groups were assessed using standardized scales and follow-up semi-structured interviews. The results revealed that students given the GIMT intervention reported significantly lower levels of test anxiety, as measured by the Test Anxiety Scale (TAS), and experienced fewer difficulties with emotional regulation, as indicated by the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS).Additionally, these students achieved higher examination scores than the control group. Qualitative data from semi-structured interviews further supported these observations. Collectively, these findings demonstrate that GIMT is an effective method for enhancing the emotional regulation abilities of medical students and for relieving the symptoms of test anxiety, ultimately resulting in better academic performance. The study also indicates that GIMT could be a promising clinical auxiliary method for dealing with test anxiety and should be considered for inclusion in the curriculum of healthcare professional education programs. Nonetheless, more efforts are needed to address the limitaions of this method before it can be widely used for clinical practice.

    Keywords: test anxiety, emotional regulation, group impromptu music therapy, Medical students, Improvement

    Received: 21 Jul 2024; Accepted: 28 Nov 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Song, Xiao, Wang, Li, Liu, Zhang, Liu, Zhang and Zhang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Li Song, Qingdao University, Qingdao, China

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.