1. The Music Therapy Session Assessment Scale (MT-SAS): Validation of a new tool for music therapy process evaluation
- Author
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Maria Cristina Monti, Giulia Gontero, Chiara Imbriani, Lapo Attardo, Alfredo Raglio, Sara Boffelli, Marco Gnesi, Lara Morotti, Cristina Montomoli, Marcello Imbriani, Osmano Oasi, and Marta Gianotti
- Subjects
Adult ,Male ,030506 rehabilitation ,Music therapy ,Psychometrics ,assessment ,Emotions ,Eye contact ,Pilot Projects ,Settore M-PSI/08 - PSICOLOGIA CLINICA ,behavioral disciplines and activities ,Settore M-PSI/03 - PSICOMETRIA ,050105 experimental psychology ,Session (web analytics) ,Attunement ,03 medical and health sciences ,Nonverbal communication ,communicative behaviours ,Multiple correspondence analysis ,Humans ,0501 psychology and cognitive sciences ,Nonverbal Communication ,Music Therapy ,Aged ,Aged, 80 and over ,music therapy process ,05 social sciences ,music therapy ,relationship ,Reproducibility of Results ,Professional-Patient Relations ,Middle Aged ,Clinical Psychology ,Treatment Outcome ,Observational study ,Female ,0305 other medical science ,Psychology ,Clinical psychology - Abstract
Background Music therapy (MT) interventions are aimed at creating and developing a relationship between patient and therapist. However, there is a lack of validated observational instruments to consistently evaluate the MT process. Aim The purpose of this study was the validation of Music Therapy Session Assessment Scale (MT-SAS), designed to assess the relationship between therapist and patient during active MT sessions. Methods Videotapes of a single 30-min session per patient were considered. A pilot study on the videotapes of 10 patients was carried out to help refine the items, define the scoring system and improve inter-rater reliability among the five raters. Then, a validation study on 100 patients with different clinical conditions was carried out. The Italian MT-SAS was used throughout the process, although we also provide an English translation. Results The final scale consisted of 7 binary items accounting for eye contact, countenance, and nonverbal and sound–music communication. In the pilot study, raters were found to share an acceptable level of agreement in their assessments. Explorative factorial analysis disclosed a single homogeneous factor including 6 items (thus supporting an ordinal total score), with only the item about eye contact being unrelated to the others. Moreover, the existence of 2 different archetypal profiles of attuned and disattuned behaviours was highlighted through multiple correspondence analysis. Conclusions As suggested by the consistent results of 2 different analyses, MT-SAS is a reliable tool that globally evaluates sonorous–musical and nonverbal behaviours related to emotional attunement and empathetic relationship between patient and therapist during active MT sessions.
- Published
- 2017