Testing the Effects of Music on Short and Long Term Psychological Outcomes and Step Counts in Children

January 14, 2026 updated by: Kyle A. Kercher, Indiana University

Testing the Effects of Music on Short-Term Changes in Affective Valence, Arousal, and RPE, Long Term Changes in Enjoyment, Motivation, and Commitment to Physical Activity, and Step Counts in Children

The goal of this clinical trial is to investigate whether asynchronous music can improve outcomes of an 8-week long sport based youth development program. The main questions it aims to answer are:

  • Does music increase step count during each lesson?
  • Does music create a larger improvement in affective valence, arousal, and rate of perceived exertion (RPE) during each lesson?
  • Does music create a long term improvement in enjoyment, commitment, and intrinsic motivation to exercise?
  • Does music show more improvement among sedentary participants versus active participants? Researchers will compare the results from the experimental group, which is exposed to music, to the control group, which is not exposed to music.

Participants will:

  • Participate in the sport based youth development program, Hoosier Sport, during their school's physical education class once a week for 8 weeks.
  • Respond to 3 questions regarding affective valence, arousal, and RPE before and after each lesson.
  • Complete a detailed survey regarding basic demographics, their music preferences, enjoyment of exercise, motivation to exercise, commitment to exercise, and current activity levels before the intervention.
  • Complete the same sections regarding enjoyment of exercise, motivation to exercise, and commitment to exercise at a mid and end point of the intervention.

Study Overview

Status

Not yet recruiting

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

30+ students (5th-6th grade) from Clear Creek Christian School (CCCS) will be recruited to participate in the present study for the Spring of 2026. This group will participate in Hoosier Sport lessons that take place during their scheduled PE time at CCCS once a week for 8 weeks.

Hoosier Sport intervention components include sport participation and leadership development activities. Hoosier Sport is a part of Clear Creek Christian School's regular PE classes and is separate from this study procedure. Classes will be divided into classes with music (experimental group) and classes without music (control group) and will remain in these categories for the duration of the intervention. Students will be blinded to the purpose of this experiment to avoid performance bias and the expectation of music during classes in the control group. The Hoosier Sport curriculum will remain the same for both groups. In the classes with music, music will be played during drills and games and paused during instruction. The music will be upbeat, 120+ beats per minute, and school appropriate. The research team will incorporate students' music preferences where possible.

Once participants express interest in joining the study, the research team will set up a phone call to obtain consent and assent. There will be a survey for participants to take prior to the start of the intervention. Included in this survey are questions about basic demographics, music preferences, the physical activity section of the Global School Based Health Survey (GSHS) to determine active versus sedentary students, the Physical Activity Enjoyment Scale Short Version (PACES-S) to determine their enjoyment of physical activity, the enjoyment/interest subsection of the Intrinsic Motivation Inventory (IMI) to determine levels of motivation to exercise, and the Commitment to Physical Activity Scale for Adolescents (CPASA) to determine commitment to exercise. Before and after each Hoosier Sport lesson, the children will complete the Feeling Scale, Felt Arousal Scale, and rate of perceived exertion (1 question each) to determine their current affect, activation levels, and effort. The students will complete the PACES-S, IMI Enjoyment/Interest subsection, and CPASA after week 4 and week 8 of the intervention. During each lesson, students will wear Yamax SW-200 pedometers to track their step counts, which will be returned at the end of each lesson.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Estimated)

35

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

  • United States
    • Indiana
      • Bloomington, Indiana, United States, 47403
        • Clear Creek Christian School

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

  • Child

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Currently enrolled in 5th or 6th grade at Clear Creek Elementary
  • have parental consent to participate
  • agree to study participation (verbal assent)
  • planning to attend all school days during the 8-week program period
  • enrolled in PE for the semester

Exclusion Criteria:

  • not already participating in Hoosier Sport/PE at Clear Creek Christian School

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Other
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: Single

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Active Comparator: No Music
The control group will participate in the Hoosier Sport program during their school's physical education class, which consists of sport curriculums, leadership development, and health lessons. Participants will complete this with no exposure to music.
Behavioral: No Music Exposure
This group will participate in the Hoosier Sport program with no exposure to music.
Experimental: Music
The experimental group will participate in the Hoosier Sport program during their school's physical education class, which consists of sport curriculums, leadership development, and health lessons. This group will complete this program with asynchronous music during drills and games.
Behavioral: Music in Sport Based Youth Development
The intervention being tested is the use of music during Hoosier Sport lessons. Asynchronous music that is 120+ beats per minute, generally upbeat, and school appropriate will be played during the experimental group's drills and games. The experimental group will be exposed to this music for each lesson throughout the 8-week intervention.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Step Count
Time Frame: 8 weeks
Step counts during Hoosier Sport lessons will be measured using Yamax SW-200 Digi Walker pedometers.
8 weeks

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Affective Valence
Time Frame: 8 weeks
Participants will complete the Feeling Scale before and after each Hoosier Sport lesson to measure any changes in affective valence.
8 weeks
Activation
Time Frame: 8 weeks
Participants will complete the Felt Arousal Scale before and after each Hoosier Sport lesson to measure any changes in their activation during each session.
8 weeks
Rate of Perceived Exertion
Time Frame: 8 weeks
Participants will specify their rate of perceived exertion after each Hoosier Sport lesson to determine their effort during the session.
8 weeks
Commitment to Physical Activity
Time Frame: 8 weeks
Participants will fill out the Commitment to Physical Activity Scale for Adolescents pre, mid, and post intervention to determine their commitment to physical activity.
8 weeks
Enjoyment of Physical Activity
Time Frame: 8 weeks
Participants will complete the Physical Activity Enjoyment Scale Short Version pre, mid, and post intervention to determine how much they enjoy physical activity.
8 weeks
Motivation to Exercise
Time Frame: 8 weeks
Participants will complete the Intrinsic Motivation Inventory- Enjoyment/Interest Subsection pre, mid, and post intervention to determine their levels of motivation to exercise.
8 weeks

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

Indiana University

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Estimated)

February 1, 2026

Primary Completion (Estimated)

April 1, 2026

Study Completion (Estimated)

April 1, 2026

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

January 14, 2026

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

January 14, 2026

First Posted (Actual)

January 22, 2026

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

January 22, 2026

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

January 14, 2026

Last Verified

January 1, 2026

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Other Study ID Numbers

  • 27934

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

NO

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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