The Arts and Quality of Life Research Center seeks to expand the current research base concerning the use of the arts to enhance the quality of life within a multicultural society through stimulating, supporting, and facilitating interdisciplinary studies that employ various research paradigms and methods.
Completed Research
$20,000 grant received for meta-analysis on music and quality of life in Americans
$20,000 Research Grant from the National Endowment for the Arts to conduct a meta-analysis on the effects of music on Americans' quality of life across the lifespan.
$16,000 grant for Hear Our Voices: Songwriting with At-Risk Youth
$16,000 grant for Hear Our Voices, an innovative music therapy project aimed at promoting healthy attitudes and behaviors in at-risk youth through a 14-week structured songwriting program in local schools, aiming to provide children with a creative outlet to explore issues relevant to their lives (violence, difficult family situations, anger management, school, and peer pressure) as well as an opportunity to collaboratively create strategies for personal safety and success. Read more.
$50,000 grant for Music Entertainment Study with Cancer Patients with Chronic Pain
$50,000 Provost Seed Grant to conduct a study that examines the effects of music therapy entrainment on pain levels, vital signs, medication usage, quality of life, and medication side effects in cancer patients with chronic pain through a collaboration between AQLRS and the Temple University Cancer Center.
$24,900 grant for Singing for Tomorrow: The Use of Songwriting as an Expressive Medium for Hospitalized Children with Spinal Cord Injury
$24,900 grant from the Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation supported Hear our Voices, an innovative songwriting program for inpatients with spinal cord injury at the Shriner’s Hospital for Children (Philadelphia). Read more.
$20,000 grant from Johnson & Johnson and the Society for the Arts in Healthcare for HIV/AIDS Research Study
$20,000 grant from Johnson & Johnson and the Society for the Arts in Healthcare for HIV/AIDS Research Study in conjunction with the Comprehensive HIV Program at Temple University Hospital for a research project involving the implementation and evaluation of physiological, psychological, social, and quality of life effects of a unique choral arts/music therapy program for underserved minority HIV/AIDS patients and their caregivers. Patients and their caregivers participated in a specially designed choir that met weekly over a 9-month period.
$300,000 grant from the State of Pennsylvania Formula Fund
$300,000 Research Grant from the State of Pennsylavnia Formula Fund for four research projects to enhance the quality of emotional care for multicultural inpatients with cancer or heart disease through the arts.
$50,000 Provost Seed Grant for Corazón: The Influence of Music Therapy on Stress Risk Factors Associated with Cardiovascular Disease in Latino Women
$50,000 Provost Seed Grant from Temple University funded Corazón: The Influence of Music Therapy on Stress Risk Factors Associated with Cardiovascular Disease in Latino Women which examined the effects of a specially designed music therapy program on stress, emotions, quality of life, and lifestyle of Latino women. Read more.
Music Therapy at Episcopal Hospital
This clinical music therapy program funded by the Florence Tyson Fund provided weekly music therapy sessions to individuals in acute psychiatric care at Temple University Episcopal Hospital. Read more.
Cochrane Systematic Reviews
The Center has completed several meta-analyses to synthesize research concerning the effect of music and dance on quality of life. Several of these systematic reviews include collaborations with international research teams and have been submitted to the Cochrane Collaboration. The Cochrane Collaboration is the best single source for reliable evidence about the effects of health care and their systematic reviews are recognized as the gold standard in evidence-based health care.