Evaluating the Impact of Social Music

Overview

Mental health vulnerability due to stress is increased in People of African Descent (PADs) in America due to disproportionate effects of racism, poverty, education, and criminal justice sentencing. Various meditation and mindfulness approaches have provided evidence of measured reductions in multiple negative dimensions of stress. However, the majority of these studies do not have an adequate representation of PADs or other marginalized groups and are not designed to be culturally relevant or community based. Music has been shown to alleviate multiple symptoms of stress and has been shown to be a preferred and effective support for meditation and mindfulness. However, its role in stress management in PADs engaged in meditation or mindfulness is seldom studied. This study aims to evaluate the effects of a virtual, community-based music mindfulness program on stress management in PAD community members with anxiety and depression during COVID19. 2b. Social Music Study: Investigators will assess the neural mechanisms of feelings of subjective connectedness during communal music listening and creating between dyads of subjects who are both familiar and unfamiliar with each other.

The investigators also propose a study to investigate the effects of communal drumming in reducing anxiety and increasing connectedness within drum circle community. Investigators hypothesize that these intervention will lead to reductions in scores on stress scales and will provide preliminary data for studies evaluating these types of community programs as an adjunct to the standard of care. Participants will be screened, consented, and enrolled in dyads in a paradigm in which they will be positioned across from each other while listening to various types of music (i.e. music that is harmonically-intact and music in which the harmonic content has been randomly scrambled). Survey data will also be collected to assess variables such as musical experience, partner familiarity, perceived stress, etc.