Group Music Therapy for Chinese Prisoners

The prevalence of psychological problems is high in prisons. Many prisoners have unmet needs for appropriate treatments. Although pilot studies have suggested music therapy to be a successful treatment modality for prisoners, more rigorous evidence is needed. This study aims to investigate the effectiveness of group music therapy to improve anxiety, depression, and self-esteem in prisoners. One hundred and ninety two inmates from a Chinese prison will be allocated to two groups through randomisation. The experimental group will participate in biweekly group music therapy for 10 weeks (20 sessions) while the control group will be placed on a waitlist. Anxiety, depression and self-esteem will be measured by self-report scales three times: before, at the middle, and at the end of the intervention. Logs by prisoners and daily behavior observation by trained prison guards will be used as additional information. This study will increase the knowledge of the effectiveness of group music therapy. Results will be generalizable to Chinese prisons but also internationally. Generalizability to clinical practice will be high, and findings will be able support the further development of music therapy in prison.