The Music Attentiveness Screening Assessment, Revised (MASA-R): A Study of Technical Adequacy.

Background: Evidence suggests that attention is an important consideration when designing procedural support interventions for children undergoing distressing medical procedures. As such, the extent to which children can attend to musical stimuli used during music-based procedural support interventions would seem important. The Music Attentiveness Screening Assessment (MASA) was designed to assess a child's ability to attend to musical stimuli, but further revisions were deemed necessary to improve administration, test-retest reliability, and interobserver agreement for the measure's items.

Music therapists' research activity and utilization barriers: a survey of the membership.

Background: Music therapists have access to a rapidly expanding body of research supporting the use of music-based interventions. What is not known is the extent to which music therapists access these resources and what factors may prevent them from incorporating research findings into clinical work.

Objective: After constructing the Music Therapists' Research Activity and Utilization Barrier (MTRAUB) database, the purposes of this study involved: assessing the extent to which American Music Therapy Association (AMTA) members engage in certain research-related activities; and identifying respondents' perceived barriers to integrating research into clinical practice.

Construct validity and reliability of the Music Attentiveness Screening Assessment (MASA).

Background: Music as alternate engagement (MAE) can be used effectively to distract children during painful or anxiety-provoking medical procedures. For such interventions to be successful, it would seem important to assess the degree to which a child can attend to musical stimuli.

Objective: The purposes of this study were as follows: (a) To establish construct validity by determining the extent to which the Music Attentiveness Screening Assessment (MASA) measures auditory attention; and (b) to gather evidence regarding MASA test-retest and inter-observer reliability.

Predictive utility of the Computer-based Music Perception Assessment for Children (CMPAC).

A Computer-based Music Perception Assessment for Children (CMPAC) was designed and administered to 49 children (31 elementary school children; 18 hospitalized children) for the purpose of field testing and standardization. CMPAC is conceptualized as an assessment tool that yields information important to music therapists regarding children's listening and musically-related behavior: These behaviors include information on music choices and the effect of music on behavior (e.g.

Music for relaxation: a comparison of musicians and nonmusicians on ratings of selected musical recordings.

The purpose of this study was to determine the kinds of musical selections/CDs to place in a portfolio to be used within a music listening/relaxation program for parents of children in a pediatric hospital. A panel of experts (4 music therapy graduate students and 2 music therapy instructors) listened to a selection of CD recordings (n = 10) which reported to contain music for relaxation. These 10 recordings were chosen based either on words within the title suggestive of sedative/relaxing music, or the literature (booklet) accompanying the CD that contained claims of such therapeutic value.