Mental Health and Wellbeing Challenges of University Music Students Compared to University Non-Music Students

Abstract

Background: University can be a difficult time for anyone, but it appears that studying music brings with it more challenges than other programs do. The literature on this subject is mostly consistent, but varies by geography, and there are few, if any, since the onset of Covid-19. Objective: The objective of this thesis is to examine the severity mental health and wellbeing challenges of music students, how they compare to their peers in other faculties. Methodology: The participant groups in this study consist of university music students (n=130), and university non-music students (n = 124) acting as a control group. Participants completed self-reported questionnaires online. Recruitment took place between the summer and fall of 2022. Several self-reported questionnaires assessed mental health, mental wellbeing, and health behaviours. Results: Compared to the controls, university music students had higher anxiety (36% reporting extremely severe anxiety), lower mental wellbeing, lower social health, higher financial stress, greater pain interference in their life activities, but may have healthier help-seeking behaviour than in previous studies. Music student women had particularly high anxiety scores (45% extremely severe). Conclusions: University music students, especially women, had more severe mental health challenges than university non-music students. Lower mental wellbeing, financial stress, as well as musculoskeletal pain interference, may be inhibitors to decreasing psychological distress. Covid-19 potentially had an outsize impact on this group of students. Further studies should see if this is a temporary phenomenon, and if it is not, music school administrators should implement policy recommendations laid out in this thesis.