Music's relevance for children with cancer: music therapists' qualitative clinical data-mining research.

Music is central in most children's lives. Understanding its relevance will advance efficacious pediatric supportive cancer care. Qualitative clinical data-mining uncovered four music therapists' perspectives about music and music therapy's relevance for pediatric oncology patients up to 14 years old. Inductive and comparative thematic analysis was performed on focus group transcripts and qualitative interrater reliability integrated. Music can offer children a safe haven for internalizing a healthy self-image alongside patient identity. Music therapy can calm, relieve distress, promote supportive relationships, enable self-care, and inspire playful creativity, associated with "normalcy" and hope. Preferred music and music therapy should be available in pediatric oncology.

Music's relevance for adolescents and young adults with cancer: a constructivist research approach.

PURPOSE: Music is one of the most widely used activities amongst young people, significant in personal and group identity, motivation, physical release, and emotional support. Adolescents and young adults with cancer (AYA) require specialized care because of intensified challenges related to developmental vulnerability, treatment toxicity effects, and slower improvements in survival rates compared to other age groups. To advance effective supportive care for AYA, understanding their thoughts about music is necessary. This study examines AYAs' perspectives about music's role in their lives. METHODS: A constructivist research approach with grounded theory design was applied. Twelve people, 15 to 25 years old, known to onTrac@PeterMac Victorian Adolescent & Young Adult Cancer Service, participated. Respondents completed a brief music demographic questionnaire and participated in a semi-structured interview. Qualitative inter-rater reliability was integrated. RESULTS: Participants mostly reported music's calming, supportive, and relaxing effects, which alleviated hardship associated with their cancer diagnoses. Themes encompassed: music backgrounds, changed "musicking", endurance and adjustment, time with music therapists, and wisdom. Music provided supportive messages, enabled personal and shared understandings about cancer's effects, and elicited helpful physical, emotional, and imagery states. Music therapy could also promote normalized and supportive connections with others. A musician, however, struggled to get music "back" post-treatment. Supportive music-based strategies were recommended for other AYA and their health care providers. CONCLUSIONS: Music can signify and creatively enable AYAs' hope, endurance, identity development, and adjustment through cancer treatment and post-treatment phases. Health professionals are encouraged to support AYAs' music-based self-care and "normalized" activities.

Music's relevance for pediatric cancer patients: a constructivist and mosaic research approach.

PURPOSE: Music is important in most children's lives. To advance efficacious pediatric supportive care, it is necessary to understand young cancer patients' thoughts about music. Concern about inviting unwell children to express opinions has resulted in scant research examining their views. "Mosaic" research examines children's experiences through investigating multiple perspectives which inform a "co-constructed meaning." This study examines pediatric cancer patients' and their parents' perspectives about music and music therapy's role in the children's lives. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Children were receiving care at three hospitals with the Paediatric Integrative Cancer Service in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. A constructivist research approach with grounded theory design was applied. Children up to 14 years old with cancer and parents participated. Data included transcripts from semi-structured research interviews and observations of children's music behaviors. Qualitative inter-rater reliability was integrated. Findings were compared with music therapists' perspectives examined elsewhere. RESULTS: Interviews were conducted with 26 patients, median age 5.7 years, and 28 parents. Data "saturation" was achieved. A substantive grounded theory emerged: Children's adverse cancer experiences are often alleviated by music usages. Broader family, social, and electronic musical interactions also promote children's resilience and "normal" development. Music therapy and associated programs often, but not always, alleviate children's distress. Positive effects may carry over into children's home lives and vicariously support families. CONCLUSIONS: Health professionals should consider ways to assist parents who are often using music to support children with cancer. Hospitals can promote pediatric cancer patients' resilience by providing music-based support services, including music therapy, and reducing unwanted stressful sounds.

Music therapy CD creation for initial pediatric radiation therapy: a mixed methods analysis.

A mixed methods research design was used to investigate the effects of a music therapy CD (MTCD) creation intervention on pediatric oncology patients' distress and coping during their first radiation therapy treatment. The music therapy method involved children creating a music CD using interactive computer-based music software, which was "remixed" by the music therapist-researcher to extend the musical material. Eleven pediatric radiation therapy outpatients aged 6 to 13 years were randomly assigned to either an experimental group, in which they could create a music CD prior to their initial treatment to listen to during radiation therapy, or to a standard care group. Quantitative and qualitative analyses generated multiple perceptions from the pediatric patients, parents, radiation therapy staff, and music therapist-researcher. Ratings of distress during initial radiation therapy treatment were low for all children. The comparison between the two groups found that 67% of the children in the standard care group used social withdrawal as a coping strategy, compared to 0% of the children in the music therapy group; this trend approached significance (p = 0.076). MTCD creation was a fun, engaging, and developmentally appropriate intervention for pediatric patients, which offered a positive experience and aided their use of effective coping strategies to meet the demands of their initial radiation therapy treatment.