‘Who Am I? Who Am I Becoming?’ A Mixed Methods Study Investigating Music Therapy and Identity Formation in Adolescents with Adverse Childhood Experiences in a School Setting
Topic
This presentation is based on my PhD research study. At the outset of the study, rising school exclusions led to some links with pupils whose early traumatic experiences adversely impacted their behaviour. Given that a primary task of adolescence is that of identity formation (Erikson, 1968) it seemed that adolescents’ behaviours extended beyond ‘what I am doing’ to ‘who I am becoming’, with implications for emergent identity. This raised questions of how far music therapy supports ‘heathy’ identity formation in adolescents with a history of early trauma.
Methods
Music therapy sources frequently reference identity as a key concept in work with adolescents (McFerran, 2010), but research has yet to clearly articulate what this means in practice terms. This mixed methods study seeks to address this by examining processes of identity formation and music therapy with five adolescent research participants. Of these I present quantitative assessment data and qualitative findings from two case studies. This includes data from adolescent self-report questionnaires and end-of-therapy interviews.
Results
Case studies are framed by research themes resulting from data analysed thematically including: engaging in music therapy (i.e., key session activity); fostering a therapeutic relationship (with therapist as trauma-informed scene-setter, resource and catalyst); changing aspects of identity; and exploring and forming identity (towards integration, coherence and wholeness; navigating transitions and making links; self-discovery, self-affirmation and self-growth; and responding to the therapist).
Conclusion
The presentation outlines how Rhys explores his identity via symbolic musical storytelling and how Freya finds her voice as a singer-songwriter. Discussion focuses on comparison of data forms, evidence-based understanding of how music therapy supports adolescents’ identity formation, and implications for music therapy practice and research in schools toward more effective evaluation methods and working models that incorporate adolescent voices and validate their changing identities.