AI Insight
This study analyzed data from 6,454 Korean adolescent students to examine whether participating in school-based music programs is associated with learning engagement and achievement in mathematics. Students with more frequent music participation showed higher levels of engagement across multiple indicators, and this engagement was indirectly associated with mathematics achievement primarily through increased mathematics self-efficacy rather than reduced anxiety. The findings suggest that music education may contribute to domain-general learning resources that transfer across academic subjects beyond direct skill transfer.
Why it matters
The research provides evidence that music programs in schools may offer broader educational value than previously recognized, supporting learning development across core academic subjects rather than merely competing for instructional time. This has implications for curriculum planning and educational policy decisions about arts education funding and integration.
Understand the Science
BackgroundIn education systems where curriculum time is limited and core academic subjects are strongly prioritized, a key question is whether music participation merely entails opportunity costs in instructional time or is also associated with learning and psychological resources that can be mobilized across disciplinary contexts.ObjectiveThis study examined whether school-based music participation is associated with domain-general learning engagement and adolescent learning development in a core academic subject; given mathematics’ cognitive demands and salient evaluative and emotional processes, mathematics was selected as a representative domain.MethodsUsing the Korean PISA 2022 sample (N = 6,454; 5,914 with valid music-participation data), survey-weighted models incorporated replicate weights and mathematics plausible values and tested indirect and conditional pathways involving mathematics self-efficacy, anxiety, teacher support, disciplinary climate, and achievement.ResultsMore frequent school-based music participation was positively associated with all eight engagement indicators in the primary analyses (β = 0.034–0.083). Domain-general engagement was indirectly associated with mathematics achievement primarily through mathematics self-efficacy (B = 0.498, p < 0.001), whereas the overall mathematics-anxiety pathway was nonsignificant. Exploratory analyses suggested that MATHPERS may serve as a behavioral bridge. Teacher-support moderation was concentrated in mathematics anxiety, but neither classroom condition altered the overall cross-domain indirect association.ConclusionSchool-based music participation was associated with multidimensional resources relevant to adolescent learning development, supporting a resource-formation and domain-specific recontextualization account and suggesting that music education should be evaluated not only by direct achievement transfer but also by its broader contribution to learning resources across subjects.