Aura musica vol. 13, 2021:49-60

Psychopatologické důsledky éry COVID-19: Výzva pro hudební výchovu?

Wolfgang Mastnak, Jiřina Jiřičková

Public health measures to control the COVID-19 pandemic have brought about a broad spectrum of psychopathological sequelae in all generations, young people included. Especially in countries with recent and relatively long-distance learning, such as the Czech Republic, children and adolescents are at increased risk of acute and / or post-traumatic stress disorder, pathological anxiety and depression. Moreover, the COVID-19 era is likely to have an adverse impact on the development of a young person's personality. According to recent studies, Germany is actually faced with the problem of about 30 % of children and adolescents suffering from psychopathological conditions related to corona circumstances. Child and youth psychiatry is not able to handle such an enormous amount of medical cases, hence the necessity that schools support the public health system and help to avoid a 'corona generation' with disastrous consequences for both individuals and the society. Particularly music education can offer efficient means to alleviate psychopathological symptoms and to encourage pupils to acquire self-regulation skills to reduce stress-levels, to cope with traumata, to re-establish the psychosomatic equilibrium and to improve quality of life. However, new models such as creative music-movement-interaction to cope with 'coronanxiety' or voice-based relaxation techniques to tackle intrusive distressing thought or sleep disorders are requisite and call for intensified collaboration between music education and music therapy. Additionally, tailored teacher training has to be provided and empirical research is needed to continuously assess outcomes and re-adjust music-based approaches in classroom education.

Keywords: COVID-19, music therapy, self-regulation, corona generation, public health, health education

Published: September 30, 2021  Show citation