An Investigation of the Relationship Between the Home Music Environments and Music Aptitudes of Kindergarten Students
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AN INVESTIGATION OF THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE HOME MUSIC ENVIRONMENTS AND MUSIC APTITUDES OF KINDERGARTEN STUDENTS By Michael John Romanik A THESIS Submitted to Michigan State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Music Education – Master of Music 2016 ABSTRACT AN INVESTIGATION OF THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE HOME MUSIC ENVIRONMENTS AND MUSIC APTITUDES OF KINDERGARTEN STUDENTS By Michael John Romanik The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between the home music environments and the music aptitudes of kindergarten students. The specific research problems were: (1) to determine the nature of the home music environments of kindergarten students, and (2) to determine the relationships between the home music environments and the music aptitudes of kindergarten students. The subjects of this study were 289 children who had just started kindergarten. During the Fall of 2015, the Parent/Guardian Survey Regarding Kindergarten Music (PSRKM) was distributed to all of the parents of these children. Two hundred eight of these surveys were returned and analyzed to provide a measurement of these children’s home music environments. PSRKM had a Cronbach’s alpha of .91. Returned surveys indicated that parents engaged in a variety of different music activities with their children, and that parents strongly supported music and music education. Girls scored significantly higher than boys on PSRKM (p=.003). In addition, all of the children took Primary Measures of Music Audiation (PMMA) to measure their music aptitudes. Unfortunately, the Cronbach’s alphas were unacceptably low for PMMA, with reliabilities of .67, .42, and .67, for the tonal, rhythm, and composite aptitudes, respectively. These low reliabilities invalidated the small, yet significant correlations that were found between individual items from PSRKM and tonal and composite aptitudes. Significant differences related to age were found for rhythm aptitude (p=.001) and composite aptitude (p=.011). ACKNOWLEDGMENTS There are so many individuals that I owe a great debt to for supporting me and this study. Without these individuals’ guidance, inspiration, and support, I certainly would not have been able to complete this study. To Dr. Cynthia Taggart, my master’s thesis advisor and mentor: It wasn’t until I was one of your students that I began to realize that I wanted to work with young children. As I’ve learned and matured, you’ve continued to introduce me to new things I was interested in learning and doing that I never knew I could be this passionate about. Thank you. To John and Denise Romanik, my father and mother: You’ve done everything possible to provide me with the means and readiness to be successful in life. You’ve always supported me and given me the love and confidence I needed to continue to grow as a human being. Thank you. To Stacey Good, my big sister: Thank you for always looking out for me, and being there to discuss teaching, life, or anything else. If it weren’t for you going to Michigan State before me, I likely would not have ended up there, and my life would be in a much different place right now. Thank you. To Megan Kellie, my love: You’ve been such a tremendous support for me while working on this. Thank you for listening to (and laughing at) my bad jokes, and thank you for all your help keeping me on task. I don’t know where I’d be without you. Thank you. To Mike Good, my brother (“in-law”), and Douglas Williams III and Timothy Berry, my friends: You were always ready to listen and ask intelligent questions about my work and were interested in hearing about my progress, even though my study was outside your areas of iii expertise. Being able to verbalize this study provided much needed catharsis and sometimes, inspiration. Thank you. To the many co-workers that worked at the school where this study was conducted: I greatly appreciate your flexibility and support during the implementation of this study. Without you and our unique population of students, this study would not have been possible. Thank you. To all the other people that hold a special place in my life: Even without being specifically involved with this project, you provided me with the daily joys that I needed while I was away from this labor of love. Thank you. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF TABLES ........................................................................................................................ vii LIST OF FIGURES ..................................................................................................................... viii KEY TO ABBREVIATIONS ........................................................................................................ ix CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................................1 Music Aptitude.....................................................................................................................1 Home Music Environment ...................................................................................................3 Research Purpose .................................................................................................................7 Research Problems ...............................................................................................................7 CHAPTER 2: REVIEW OF LITERATURE ...................................................................................8 Introduction ..........................................................................................................................8 Review .................................................................................................................................8 Chuang’s Study ........................................................................................................8 The Development of the Home Musical Environment Scale ................................10 The Brand Study ....................................................................................................13 The Zdzinski Study ................................................................................................14 The Lyon Study......................................................................................................16 The Atterbury and Silcox Study ............................................................................18 The Rasmussen Study ............................................................................................21 The Children’s Music-Related Behavior Questionnaire ........................................24 The first study ............................................................................................24 The second study........................................................................................26 Summarizing CMRBQ...............................................................................27 The Mallet Study....................................................................................................27 Summary ............................................................................................................................30 CHAPTER 3: METHODS .............................................................................................................33 Introduction ........................................................................................................................33 Sample................................................................................................................................33 Design and Procedures .......................................................................................................34 Home Music Environment .....................................................................................34 Music Aptitude.......................................................................................................37 Analysis..............................................................................................................................38 Parent/Guardian Survey Regarding Kindergarten Music ......................................38 Primary Measures of Music Audiation ..................................................................40 The Relationship Between Home Music Environment and Music Aptitude .........40 CHAPTER 4: RESULTS AND INTERPRETATION ..................................................................41 v Introduction ........................................................................................................................41 The Parent/Guardian Survey Regarding Kindergarten Music ...........................................42 Section A – Demographics ....................................................................................42 Section B – Parent Music Activities ......................................................................43 Section C – Parent Attitudes Towards Music and Music Education .....................47 Combined Scores of Sections B and C ..................................................................51 Primary Measures of Music Audiation ..............................................................................52 Initial Administration and 2nd Administration .......................................................52 PMMA Analysis ....................................................................................................54 The Relationship Between Home Music Environment and Music Aptitude .....................57