The Feasibility of Songwriting as Stress Management for Parents of Hospitalized Children

Abstract Parents of hospitalized children are exposed to a multitude of psychological, emotional, and physical stressors. This exploratory program examined the feasibility of songwriting interventions to reduce parental stress levels during hospitalization. Board-certified music therapists facilitated songwriting sessions with parents of hospitalized children within two inpatient children’s hospitals. Fifteen parents’ stress levels were measured over the course of 5 months. The validated Stress Numeric Rating Scale (SNRS-11) was used to measure parents’ pre- and post-stress levels when songwriting interventions were facilitated, with 0 indicating low-stress levels and 10 indicating high-stress levels. Results showed a significant reduction in mean stress levels, from 6.07 pre-session to 2.33 post-session (p = .002). Our findings support the existing data on the feasibility and effectiveness of songwriting as part of a music therapy program to provide non-pharmacological stress management. To our knowledge, our pilot is one of the first to specifically investigate the impact of songwriting on parent stress levels in the inpatient pediatric hospital setting.