Young adults who shared musical experiences with their parents are found to have better relationships with their parents when they enter young adulthood as found in research. The research was done by the department of communication at the University of Arizona, where professor Dr. Jake Harwood encouraged parents to play music with their kids as it will help them stay close later in life.
The study involved a group of young adults at an average age of 21. A survey was made on the frequency of activities with which they had with their parents as children, such as listening to music together. It also asked if they attended concerts with their parents or played musical instruments together.
The participants were asked to report memories they had between ages 8 to 13 and age 14 and older and how they perceive their relationship with their parents now. Researchers found that shared musical experiences at all age levels came with better perceptions of parent-child relationship quality in young adulthood. However, the most pronounced effect was found to be during the adolescent years when parents shared musical experiences with their teenage children.
The researchers shared that two things helped to explain the relationship between shared musical experiences and better relationship quality. Professor Harwood said that synchronization or coordination happens when people play music or listen to music together. You can dance when you listen to music, or even have a music jamming session if you and your child are learning an instrument together. Data showed that coordination and synchronization can cause parents and children to like one another more.
Empathy is the next thing that helps strengthen parent-child relationships because music evokes emotions. This can perpetuate empathy towards the person with whom you are sharing music with.
The study found that while both coordination and empathy strengthens parent-children relationships, coordination appears to be more influential, based on responses from participants. Despite this finding, it is important for parents to know that it is not difficult to bond with your child using music. You can start off by listening to music in the car together. You can share your favorite tunes with your kids and in return listen to their favorite songs.
Or you can book one month’s course at Ritmo Music Studio to try learning an instrument together with your kid. If you find having fun playing music together is joyful, you can also take a longer course in learning a music instrument,, Ritmo Music Studio provides music lessons for both adults and kids in Singapore. Get in touch with us for more details.
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