Derrington 2012 thesis.pdf - Anglia Ruskin Research Online

Initiative, and the intervention involved both child-led creative music-making and
structured activities to enhance social skills. Findings showed that such involvement
in small group work led to greater ability ‘to address educational objectives, both
musical and non-musical’ (ibid. p.142).
Haines’ (1989) study of group music therapy with emotionally disturbed adolescents
showed that music therapy enhanced group cohesion and cooperation. Students were
more willing to work together after they had taken part in a music therapy group
together. Some specific problems, such as school refusal and bullying, have been
looked at in smaller scale studies. According to Shipley (2008) music therapy can
offer highly anxious, school-refusing adolescents the chance to discover meanings
and truths about themselves. She argues that without a coherent sense of self and
identity, the adolescent can encounter difficulties, resulting in school refusal and
music therapy can help ‘as part of a multi-modal treatment approach, to come to
terms with their identity in a safe environment’ (p.2).
2.9 Conclusion
This literature review has shown that there are different approaches for clinical work
with adolescents in a variety of settings and there is considerable evidence of research
in the other arts therapies. However, there are fewer quantitative studies in music
therapy with this client group than with others and an outcome-based research project
has not been carried out for youth at risk. Therefore this research area is new and
much needed.
From the Office for National Statistics (2004) ‘at least one in ten children aged
between five and fifteen faces emotional, social or behavioural problems such as
anxiety, depression, conduct, hyperkinetic and other less common disorders’ (Karkou,
2010, p. 59). ‘In a survey (Health Advisory Service 1995), head teachers of schools
for students with emotional and behavioural difficulties, estimated that 46% of their
pupils needed therapeutic support but only 9% received any’ (Cobbett, 2007). The
increasing number of adolescents with an emotional disturbance and/or behaviour
disorder, indicates the need to develop more specific programmes and approaches
that work with affecting self-regulation and communication. Wherever the students
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