The study was conducted to determine if participation in a valued group musical activity (group guitar lessons) enhances interpersonal relationships to a significantly greater degree than participation in nonmusic activities. Interpersonal relationships within two groups (musical and nonmusical) were compared by measuring changes in peer acceptance, group cohesiveness, and general interpersonal relationships (social relationships) occurring between sociometric pre- and posttests. Subjects consisted of institutionalized female psychiatric patients. The results indicated the experimental (musical) group made significant gains in peer acceptance (p = .01, p = .01, p = .03) and group cohesiveness (as indicated by number of reciprocal choices given on sociograms). The comparison (nonmusical) group failed to achieve significant gains on these variables.
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M. D. Cassity (1976) studied this question.