Music 4 Displaced Dyads East and West: An Exploration of Cultural Heritage and Universal Parenting Themes Through Data Analysis of Music Therapy Groups

The WHO has identified provision of social and psychological support in response to forced displacement as a key international priority. Worldwide, 108.4 million people were forcibly displaced by the end of 2022, 40% being children. This number is still increasing. In Europe, 7.6 million Ukrainians fled the ongoing war with Russia3, of which over 65,700 entered the UK by May 2022. The UK is also currently hosting a growing Afghan population; from March 2023, approximately 21,000 Afghans have been resettled in the UK, including families with young children residing in temporary accommodation. Music therapy has been used as a means of supporting traumatised displaced communities, with the first published paper appearing in 2005. Subsequent music therapy interventions have focussed on a range of settings, but no music therapy research to date has focussed on the mother-infant dyad.

Music Therapy for Displaced Dyads East and West (M4DDEW) is a mixed-method study aiming to evidence music therapy as a viable and effective intervention to support displaced caregivers and their very young children from Ukraine and Afghanistan. Music therapy’s non-verbal properties suggest it is suitable for populations and ages with less developed linguistic skills. It has the potential to foster emotional communication between dyads and the group  through musical interactions while also offering opportunities to share both specific cultural heritage and universal parenting themes. 

This project is an upscale of an earlier, shorter project focussing only on Ukrainian dyads. This presentation will focus on the early stages of data analysis in M4DDEW. It will include an exploration of the range of quantitative measures obtained and link these to qualitative data, generating a discussion of the suitability of music therapy for this type of intervention.