Music, dance may reduce stress in low-income kids: study

Engaging in intensive classes on music, dance and visual arts may help lower the stress levels of children from economically disadvantaged families, a new study has found.
Previous research has shown that poverty can harm kid's educational, social-emotional and physical health, in part by damaging the bodily systems that respond to the chronically high levels of stress that children in poverty are more likely to experience.
Researchers at West Chester University and the University of Delaware in the US looked at 310 economically disadvantaged three- to five-year-olds attending a preschool programme that serves children from a range of racial and ethnic backgrounds.

Children underwent multiple arts classes each day in fully equipped studios by credentialed art teachers.
The arts classes are used not only to develop children's artistic skills but also to promote learning in core early childhood domains like language, literacy and math.
"Our study is the first we know of that demonstrates that the arts may help alleviate the impact of poverty on children's physiological functioning," said Eleanor Brown, professor of psychology at West Chester University.

The study randomly assigned preschoolers by classroom to different types and numbers of arts classes.
Researchers measured cortisol levels by analysing 7,000 samples of children's saliva, which were collected at morning and then after arts and homeroom classes on two different days at the start, middle, and end of the school year.

They found that cortisol levels were lower after arts classes than after homeroom, suggesting that taking part in arts programming helped reduce the stress levels of children.
"The study has important implications. In an ideal world, no child would grow up in poverty," said Brown.
"Working toward this ideal requires attention to not only economic inequities but also to the many related inequities that harm children who grow up poor and to the opportunities for disrupting the strong predictive relationship between poverty and negative outcomes," she said.
"This study demonstrates that a nonmonetary intervention can reduce cortisol levels. In this case, the intervention is the arts," she added.

Researchers saw these positive effects at the middle and end of the year, but not at the start of the school year.
"This study sets the stage for further investigation regarding the arts as a vehicle for promoting well-being among children from disadvantaged families," Brown said.
The study appears in the journal Child Development.