Mechanisms and Effects of Music Education on Learning and Wellbeing in Childhood and Adolescence

Music education has emerged as a promising and accessible component of school curricula, studied for its potential to enhance children’s development and wellbeing. Recent advances—spurred by large-scale initiatives such as the WHO-commissioned review by Fancourt and Finn (2019)—have integrated epidemiological findings, classroom-based interventions, and mechanistic research. The field now benefits from neuroimaging, psychobiological, and longitudinal evidence demonstrating how structured musical activities in educational settings may influence cognitive maturation, stress regulation, academic performance, and emotional functioning across childhood and adolescence.Major intervention studies indicate that increased exposure to music within the school schedule is associated with positive shifts in classroom climate and stability or improvement in academic achievement, even when lesson hours for other subjects are marginally reduced. School-based programs featuring regular singing, instrumental instruction, and group music-making show links to vocabulary growth, narrative skills, and adaptive emotion regulation. Psychobiological research has begun to document the acute and chronic effects of school music education on stress physiology, including changes in markers such as cortisol during the school day, pointing toward possible mechanisms for broader wellbeing benefits.This Research Topic aims to synthesize and advance understanding of the specific developmental, cognitive, and psychobiological outcomes of expanded music education in mainstream school environments, from infancy through adolescence. The objective is to clarify the robustness and reproducibility of observed benefits, identify effective program characteristics (e.g., frequency, duration, modality), and elucidate pathways by which music education influences attention, executive function, learning, and emotion regulation. Submissions may also examine individual differences—such as neurodevelopmental profiles or age-related responsiveness—where musical engagement in the classroom allows for meaningful participation and growth.To gather further insights on the boundaries and mechanisms of music education in schools, we welcome articles addressing, but not limited to, the following themes:• Impacts of curriculum-based music instruction on classroom climate and student engagement• Effects of school music education on academic skills, language development, and narrative competence• Music-related modulation of emotional development and self-regulation• Psychobiological correlates of classroom music activities (e.g., stress physiology, salivary cortisol, neuroimaging findings)• Evidence syntheses and critical appraisals of intervention studies within educational contextsNote: This Research Topic does not include work focused primarily on equity, gender, intersectionality, or therapeutic music interventions outside of standard school education.Article types: original research, systematic reviews, meta-analyses, perspectives, and case studies. Topic editors: Tores PG Theorell, Eva Bojner Horwitz, Gunter Kreutz Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/78010/mechanisms-and-effects-of-music-education-on-learning-and-wellbeing-in-childhood-and-adolescence