One graduate studies researcher at the University of Manitoba has been exploring the connection between music education and the potential benefits in academic performance and mental health in high school students. 

“Music has an intrinsic benefit to students,” says Susan Burchill. “Music courses in high school, they allow students to learn and grow as musicians and also explore other facets of their identity.” 

While pursuing a music degree, Burchill became interested in the relationship between taking music courses and other academic and mental health outcomes. As a research assistant at the Manitoba Centre for Health Policy (MCHP), she was able to dive more deeply into the data to explore that idea. 

 

“There is a lot of research that looks at music and mental wellness,” says Burchill. “But I wanted to look specifically at a diagnosis and specifically at exam marks and did you graduate when you expected to graduate.”

After reviewing the data, Burchill concludes that grade 12 students who had taken music courses were more likely to score better on exams and graduate on time and less likely to receive an ADHD diagnosis or substance use disorder diagnosis.

“For language arts in particular… there’s a decrease in the gap between exam scores between high and low income students,” says Burchill, who noted a 5 percent change in the average exam score for students who did not take music classes (9 percent) and those that did (4 percent). 

 

When it came to mental health outcomes, the data is simply observational, not preventative. 

“I couldn’t look at any kind of causal relationship,” explains Burchill. “But in terms of a diagnosis, specially for something like substance use, students taking 3 or more music courses had a 29 percent reduced risk of being diagnosed with a substance use disorder.” 

This research points to the importance of music education in the province, according to Burchill. “It is obviously helping some groups of students,” she says, stressing the importance of providing music courses that students want to take — be that songwriting, jazz, Indigenous music classes and ensembles. 

“Especially for low-income students, there are barriers to even taking music courses in the first place,” says Burchill. “You need to rent an instrument, you need to have the time available to practice, and not all students have those resources available.”