Psychological needs and wellbeing in community music education for young people experiencing challenging life circumstances

Improving the wellbeing of young people is an international priority. Community music education programs (CMEPs) are increasingly recognized as an empowering environment for participants to learn healthy life strategies in addition to music. This qualitative case study used the theoretical lens of Self-Determination Theory (SDT) to investigate how a CMEP in regional Australia satisfied the psychological needs and enhanced the wellbeing of adolescents and young adults experiencing challenging life circumstances. The CMEP offered free afternoon programs where learning music, particularly songwriting, was used as a transformative resource to engage youth in formal life education. Entry to the program was available to all young people, regardless of their previous music education experience. Data were generated using researcher participation, observation, and individual semistructured interviews with young people and program facilitators. Reflexive thematic analysis was used to analyze the collected data. The three overarching themes of Belonging, Learning, and Empowerment were derived as the guiding pillars of this CMEP. Participants described the no-judgment, inclusive, and safe family environment created. Young people engaged in informal music activities, which opened the door to learning formal life skills. Facilitators were crucial in creating a positive learning culture that empowered young people to make independent healthy choices and provided them with support in accessing appropriate services. The discussion examines how this CMEP promoted wellbeing by facilitators creating an environment that satisfied young people’s relatedness, competency, autonomy, and deficit psychological needs, and advances our understanding of SDT and wellbeing in music learning contexts with young people in vulnerable situations. This innovative model of music education disrupts traditional approaches to school music education and calls for a recalibration where musical flourishing for all students is achieved by removing entry barriers, combining informal music and formal life learning, and emphasizing the need for highly personalized learning goals.