The Relationship Between Music Performance Anxiety, Age, Self-Esteem, and Performance Outcomes in Hong Kong Music Students

Abstract

Existing studies suggest that music performance anxiety can undermine the quality of performances regardless of performers’ ages. However, most of the studies have focused on professional musicians. It is crucial to know when
music performance anxiety occurs in order to minimize its effects on young musicians including the ongoing psychological damage done to them. The present study is intended to investigate: 1) whether there was support for the claim that music performance anxiety has an early onset in young children; 2) to what extent music performance anxiety is associated with self-esteem; 3) whether there is support for the claim that performance outcomes are affected by one’s anxiety levels.

The State-Trait Anxiety Inventory for Children (STAIC) by Spielberger (1973)and the Self-Esteem Scale (SES) by Rosenburg (1965) were the major psychometric measures. A researcher-designed questionnaire was also used to collect participants’ demographic data and their experiences as well as the ways they coped with music performance anxiety. They were asked to identify their feelings based on the items adapted from the Music Performance Anxiety Inventory for Adolescents or MPAI-A (Osborne and Kenny, 2005). One hundred and seventy-four participants aged from 7 to 18 participated in the present study.

Findings of the present study suggest that age is significantly related to participants’ pre-SAS and the number of symptoms. In addition, MPA was found to be more prevalent in older age ranges but no significant differences
were found between different age groups. In addition, evidence from the current study supported the claim that self-esteem is negatively correlated with MPA. It was also revealed that no relation was found between one’s music
performance anxiety and the quality of music one played. However, participants’ anticipated outcomes of their quality of performance may be related to music performance anxiety. Findings from the study are discussed in terms
of their relevance to the Hong Kong context and their implications for practice.