Effectiveness of Music Therapy on Aggressive Behavior of Visually Impaired Adolescents

Abstract

Objective: Aggression is one of the common social disorders in adolescence. Blindness is a disability, which can lead to immature and inappropriate behaviors in children, and increase aggression in teenagers. The present study was conducted to investigate the effect of music on aggressive behavior in visually impaired students. Methods: This research was an experimental pretest-posttest study with a control group and was conducted in 2012. The study population of this research was teenagers with visual impairments in Bojnord, northeast of Iran. For this purpose, Buss and Perry aggression questionnaire and Rutter behavior questionnaire for teachers were used. Twelve music therapy sessions were held, each lasting 90 minutes. T-tests and analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) were used for data analysis. Results: There were not significant differences between the two groups regarding age, socioeconomic status, and education level of parents, as ascertained prior to the pretest. In the intervention group, the declines of aggression scores were statistically significant. There were significant differences between the results of posttest in the intervention and control groups. Conclusion: Music therapy reduces aggression in teens with blindness and can be used as a non-pharmacological intervention to reduce emotional states in this group.