The Effectiveness of Music Training in Cognitive Flexibility, Empathy and Aggression of Adolescents

According to the studies, music has some promoting effects on mood, development empathy and social understanding. The aim of this study was to examine the effectiveness of music training in adolescents' cognitive flexibility, empathy and aggression. The present study was a quasi-experimental pretest-posttest with a control group. The statistical population was all high school male students in District 21 of Tehran in 2022. The participants were 30 people who selected by accessible sampling method and randomly assigned to experimental and control groups (15 people in each group); Data were collected using the Dennis and VanderWal (2010) Cognitive Flexibility Questionnaire, Davis Empathy (1983) and the Buss and Perry Aggression Questionnaire (1992). The experimental group received eight sessions of 60-minute music training twice per week online, but the control group did not receive any training during this period. Multivariate analysis of covariance was used to test the research hypotheses. The results showed that music training significantly increased cognitive flexibility and empathy and decreased aggression of adolescents in the experimental group (p <.01); Therefore, the results showed that music education is effective in improving cognitive flexibility and empathy and reducing aggression in adolescents and is suggested as an effective intervention in promoting positive psychological traits and reducing negative psychological traits.