Introduction: Development and implementation of low cost, community-based mental health (MH) and wellbeing practices that can mitigate the global MH pandemic are desperately needed. In 2022, Buffett Institute for Global Affairs at Northwestern University tasked a group of interdisciplinary researchers and clinicians to do just this. Leveraging expertise across Northwestern's Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, School of Music Education, and the School of Engineering, the Music for Childhood Wellbeing Initiative (MCWI) emerged as one response. MCWI has been implemented in four global locations (USA, Mexico, England, and China) with promising success as an emerging evidenced based, wellbeing practice.


Purpose: MCWI is an interdisciplinary designed, group-singing and breathwork intervention for 8-11-year-old youth. It is an 8-week, culturally modifiable curriculum, implemented in schools and community settings. Activities focus on stimulating the autonomic nervous system through the voice and breath in a group setting designed to foster connection and belonging. MCWI is evaluated through mixed method strategies, including quantitative, qualitative, and biomedical measurements of heart rate variability collected by a wireless, wearable sensor.


Method:
8-11-year-olds (n=154; Mexico City, Chicago, England, China; high & low resource communities); Eight, weekly 1-hour sessions. Measures: Heart rate variability, State Trait Anxiety Index; Community Sense of Belonging, School Sense of Belonging; WellCheq, & qualitative interviews


Results:
All cohorts reported clinically significant improvement in Wellbeing (p=.005) and declines in state anxiety from pre to post p=.001 intervention.
Low frequency band for HRV indicates clinically significant interaction sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system alongside reductions in anxiety (STAI) (1-B, p=.05)


Conclusion:
MCWI demonstrates clinically significant improvement in wellbeing, declines in anxiety, and improvement in HRV
MCWI has a more positive, robust effect on those from low resourced communities compared to high resourced communities
MCWI is emerging as an evidenced-based approach to mitigating anxiety and stress and enhance subjective wellbeing