Exploring the role of music therapy in enhancing protective factors for the resilience of youth at risk

Abstract

This study was designed to explore the role of community music therapy in enhancing protective factors for youth at risk, which are associated with, and predictive of resilience. Resilience is understood as adaptive behaviour when faced with adversity and threats to adaptation. This qualitative research utilised a case study of six learners from Heideveld Primary School, aged nine to eleven, who participated in nine group music therapy sessions. Video recordings of the sessions and portfolio entries created by the participants were analysed by means of thematic coding and categorising. Individual, relational, community and cultural protective factors, which can enable resilience, were observed in the music therapy space and were incorporated into eight themes that offered insight into the contextually pertinent factors that can promote resilience in relation to the types of adversity faced in the Heideveld ecology. It was also explored how these factors may be enhanced in a community music therapy process. The importance of affording experiences of safety and a nurturing support system in the music therapy space, as well as the ability of interactions within musicking to evoke and enhance protective factors, are highlighted.