Attachments and Strategies: Music Performance Anxiety, Trauma, and Mental Health Distress Within Music Learning Environments

This literature review contains a synthesis of research findings at the intersection of music performance anxiety, trauma, and mental health distress. Although these constructs appear dissimilar, each involves a propensity for diminished skills of emotion regulation, particularly during situations of heightened stress. According to attachment theorists, emotion regulation challenges signal a history of suboptimal interactions with adult caregivers during childhood. A search of literature related to attachment theory and the three constructs yielded 65 relevant studies from the fields of music education, general education, special education, psychology, psychiatry, and neuroscience. Included in the review are causes and manifestations of each construct to aid in identifying affected students and associations between suboptimal attachment and emotion regulation challenges for offering insight into related difficulties. The review concludes with suggestions for incorporating self-compassion skills training into music lessons and rehearsals for building emotion regulation skills and enhancing achievement within music learning environments.