Abbey Dvorak

University of Iowa | UI · School of Music

Translation of research to practice is essential for competent practitioners but requires skills and experience in reading and understanding research. Course-based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs) may be a means of developing research skills for all students in a course. For successful CUREs, faculty evaluate students’ research skill deve...

Dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) improves emotion regulation by building skills in mindfulness, distress tolerance, emotion regulation, and interpersonal effectiveness. The purpose of this pilot study was to compare a DBT skills group with a combined DBT skills and music therapy (MT) group on participant outcomes of attendance, participation, ski...

Refugees experience trauma and are more vulnerable than the general population to experiencing mental health conditions. Music may be used to support and enhance the lives of refugees. The purpose of this systematic review was to summarize and describe the uses of music to address trauma for individuals who are refugees. The research questions incl...

The purpose of this study was to evaluate a course-based undergraduate research experience (CURE) in a required music psychology course and to measure student outcomes and conduct reliability estimation for the Research Skill Development Questionnaire (RSDQ) and Undergraduate Research Student Self-Assessment (URSSA). Student researchers ( N = 33) c...

Course-based undergraduate research experiences (CURE) allow students opportunities to develop research skills. In a scaffolded CURE, music therapy and music education students composed, evaluated, and selected the music stimuli used in a music and mindfulness study with non-musicians at Site 1 and musicians at Site 2. The purposes of this paper ar...

Mindfulness meditation has frequently used sound and music as an important component. However, research on effective music stimuli is scarce. After a series of studies evaluating the most effective, useful, and preferred auditory stimuli, we were interested in exploring whether these effective musical features were transferred to new music. In this...

Mindfulness is a natural human capacity to be aware of the present moment, without judgment, rejection, or attachment to it. Cultivating a mindful state has been related to improvements in mood and stress management. Mindfulness practices may be enhanced with music. The purpose of this study was to replicate a previous study regarding the effective...

Introduction: Research skill development is a current need in music therapy education. Course-based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs) may address this need. The purpose of this study was (a) to replicate a CURE for students enrolled in a required music psychology course at a university in the United States, (b) to measure student outcomes,...

The purpose of this study was to compare the effectiveness of and preference for different auditory stimuli on mindfulness meditation in musicians. A second purpose was to compare musician responses with non-musician responses from a previous study. A repeated-measures design exposed participants to four auditory stimuli of increased complexity. Pa...

Course-based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs) involve entire classes of students in addressing research questions or problems of interest to the scientific community. The purpose of this study was to systematically examine the available literature for CUREs and explore implications and best practices for inclusion in music therapy educati...

The purpose of this study was to compare the effectiveness of and preference for different auditory stimuli in supporting mindfulness meditation. Undergraduate non-musicians ( N = 57) listened to four different auditory stimuli guiding them in a mindfulness meditation: script only (i.e., Script), steady beat (i.e., Beat), beat and harmonic progress...

Course-based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs) involve entire classes of students researching a question or problem that is of interest to the scholarly community with an unknown outcome to both students and instructor. The purpose of this pre-experimental one-group posttest design study was to explore outcomes of a CURE for music therapy...

The purpose of this phenomenological study was to explore the experiences and perceptions of direct care staff of older adults with intellectual disabilities who participate in music therapy services. Participants (N = 5) were direct care staff (DCS) over age 18, either currently working or formerly having worked as DCS at Cottonwood Retirement, wh...

The Adaptive Use Musical Instrument (AUMI) is a software program and musical instrument that may be used by music therapists in clinical practice. As more music therapists incorporate software programs into their work, they may struggle with understanding the software, identifying possible therapeutic uses in clinical practice, and realizing the sy...

Family caregivers may experience emotional and relational distress due to decreased intimacy and communication with their loved one at end-of-life. The purpose of the study was to examine intimacy behaviors in a family–patient relationship at the end-of-life with the central research question: Is there a difference in frequency of family caregivers...

Background Music therapy students negotiate a complex relationship with music and its use in clinical work throughout their education and training. This distinct, pervasive, and evolving relationship suggests a developmental process unique to music therapy. Objective The purpose of this grounded theory study was to create a theoretical model of mu...

The purpose of this study was to investigate current censorship practices and beliefs of music therapists working in adult mental health settings. The research questions included: (a) What music, or elements of music, do music therapists censor during music therapy sessions? (b) If music therapists censor, what are their reasons for censoring? The...

Although lyric analysis is a common music therapy intervention in mental health, limited clinical information is available that specifically focuses on the processing questions used during implementation. Based on Kees and Jacobs’s (1990) group exercise processing model, and contextualized within a cognitive-behavioral orientation, this lyric analy...

The purpose of this study was to acquire baseline data regarding string instructors' perceptions on the use of memorization in string instructional environments. The researchers surveyed string instructors (N = 126) from two midwestern states about memorization conceptualization, curricular importance, perceived benefits, personal level of ease and...