Psychosocial outcomes of active singing interventions for therapeutic purposes: a systematic review of the literature

Meaningful interventions that enhance psychosocial factors, such as improving mood, reducing anxiety or increasing motivation, have the potential to ameliorate therapeutic outcomes for individuals in therapeutic programs. Singing, with its capacity for social, emotional, cognitive, and physical engagement, demonstrates potential as an accessible intervention that could facilitate such benefits. A systematic review of the literature was conducted to investigate the effectiveness of active singing as an intervention for improving psychosocial measures for people in therapeutic programs. Literature was searched through databases Medline, PsycInfo, Embase, Cinahl, Amed, and PubMed. Key concepts included populations in therapeutic programs, active singing as an intervention and psychosocial outcomes. Fourteen articles were identified that met the inclusion and exclusion criteria. These studies were assessed against quality criteria and data were tabulated for analysis and synthesis of results. Of the 11 quantitative studies, three demonstrated significantly improved psychosocial measures following the active singing intervention, and three further studies showed significant effects for both active singing and a comparison intervention. These findings are inconclusive and indicate that a variety of interventions including active singing demonstrate a capacity to improve psychosocial measures in the populations examined. Evidence from three qualitative papers, however, suggests that active singing may have some less tangible benefits that were not captured in the quantitative data. Further research with random group allocation, validated measurement tools, larger sample sizes and mixed quantitative and qualitative designs might increase the potential for results that capture the psychosocial effects of active singing for therapeutic purposes.