Peer-reviewed article
Mapping family involvement in music therapy for children and adolescents with cancer: a scoping review.
Boyde C, Ehrenschneider LL, Brückner J, Donisch JM, Siebenmorgen M et al. ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-haiku-4-5-20251001This scoping review examines how families are involved in music therapy for children and adolescents with cancer. The review found 18 studies showing that music therapy with family involvement can reduce anxiety, stress, and pain while improving mood and quality of life. Family roles ranged from observing to actively participating in music-making with their child. The evidence suggests music therapy supports emotional connection and family coping, but studies vary widely in quality and design.
Key points
- Reported outcomes included reductions in anxiety, stress, and pain, and improvements in mood, quality of life, and family interaction
- Family involvement ranged from observational and reflective roles to direct participation in shared music-making and parent-led facilitation
- Interaction-focused and parent-directed approaches were most often described as supporting emotional connectedness, shared coping, and family resilience
- Methodological heterogeneity, small sample sizes, and inconsistent conceptualisations of family involvement limited comparability across studies
- The available evidence is heterogeneous and primarily descriptive
Limitations
This is a scoping review of existing literature rather than new research, so it cannot determine which approaches are most effective or whether observed benefits would persist long-term. The review notes that included studies vary widely in methodological quality and how they define and measure family involvement, making it difficult to draw firm conclusions.
Abstract
Children and adolescents undergoing cancer treatment, along with their families, experience psychological and emotional distress. Music therapy is increasingly acknowledged as an intervention that may foster emotion regulation, coping, and communication; however, family involvement remains insufficiently delineated. This scoping review maps evidence on family involvement in music therapy for paediatric oncology, characterises the forms and intensity of participation, summarises intervention features and reported outcomes, and identifies limitations and research gaps. Following PRISMA-ScR guidelines, a systematic search was conducted in PSYNDEX, PubMed, The Cochrane Library, and Embase (2010-2025). Studies were eligible if they examined music therapy interventions or structured music-therapy-based interventions in paediatric oncology and involved family members at any level of participation. Eighteen studies met the inclusion criteria and were synthesised descriptively. Across the studies, reported outcomes included reductions in anxiety, stress, and pain, as well as improvements in mood, quality of life, and family interaction. Family involvement ranged from primarily observational and reflective roles to direct participation in shared music-making and, in some cases, therapist-guided parent-led facilitation. Interaction-focused and parent-directed approaches were most often described as supporting emotional connectedness, shared coping, and family resilience. Methodological heterogeneity, small sample sizes, and inconsistent conceptualisations of family involvement limited comparability. The reviewed literature suggests that family involvement in music therapy may support psychosocial well-being and relational functioning within paediatric oncology. However, the available evidence is heterogeneous and primarily descriptive. Future research would benefit from clearer conceptualisations of family involvement and more methodologically comparable studies to clarify mechanisms of change and long-term effects.
Findings the Hub has extracted
Each claim below is labelled by its type of design and links back to this report.
Problem
Psychological and emotional distress in children, adolescents, and families during cancer treatment
- Intervention
- Music therapy with family involvement, ranging from observation to direct participation in shared music-making and therapist-guided parent-led facilitation
- Population
- Children and adolescents undergoing cancer treatment and their families
Key finding
Reported outcomes included reductions in anxiety, stress, and pain