Derrington 2012 thesis.pdf - Anglia Ruskin Research Online

standard care involves more 1:1 and small group work due to the students’ needs,
music therapy could be recognised as bringing about change in the CVC students.
One of the most surprising elements of this study was the abundance of qualitative
data that students provided in their interviews. They used them to communicate the
value of music therapy for them and to share how they felt. However without
substantial quantitative data the study would have only provided a subjective view of
the students’ experience. Indeed, if only quantitative or qualitative data had been
collected, the study would have lacked its depth and fullest meaning.
The study design was the most appropriate way to determine the effects of music
therapy with this population because, although it was a quantitative study from the
outset, the design of the interviews led to invaluable qualitative data. The study was
designed with replication in mind, in order to obtain a greater data set, and one
change that is recommended for such subsequent studies is to leave out the Beck
Anxiety Inventory for Youth. The complex nature of measuring anxiety in young
people revealed by this study (9.3.3.1) suggests that it should be the focus of a single
in-depth research investigation.
This study has shown that the design led to robust evidence which will strengthen the
current and emerging evidence-based practice in the field of music therapy as well as
furthering the case for using mixed methods in research.
9.5 The study’s contribution
This study has shown that music therapy makes a positive difference to adolescents
with emotional difficulties at risk of underachievement or exclusion and it has added
to the growing evidence of music therapy practice. It is particularly important to be
able to contribute to helping adolescents in school at the present time. The riots in the
UK in August 2011 did not help to reduce, and probably even fuelled, society’s
general blame that young people can be too unruly, anti-establishment, threatening
and have a negative affect on communities. The introduction of Antisocial Behaviour
Orders (ASBOs) in the late 1990s seemed to fuel ephebiphobia, the fear or loathing of
teenagers, and create a distorted view that young people should be approached with
! ##%!