Exploring Mothers’ Experiences of an Online Musical Parenting Educational Program

Abstract The purpose of this study was to investigate the experiences of a group of mothers who participated in an online musical parenting educational program. The participants comprised 18 mothers with infants from birth to 12 months old. This study was conducted for 6 months using qualitative research methods: semi-structured interviews and informal discussions with mother-participants, participants’ digital journals and filmed videos, and researcher field notes taken during the educational program. Findings revealed that during the program, mothers engaged in multimodal musical interaction with their infants, which facilitated a dynamic state of attunement within the mother-infant dyad. Active participation in the educational program fostered mothers’ confidence in using music as a parenting tool and enhanced conscious musical parenting practices with their infants. I discuss implications for musical parenting educational programs and research.