The purpose of this study was to investigate the application of test instruments used in
articles of Korean Journal of Music Therapy (KJMT) and Journal of Music and Human
Behavior (JMHB) published from 1999 to 2014. Total 233 articles were reviewed according
to the type of research methods. Of them, the 120 (51.5%) articles used test instruments
as experimental, descriptive, and mixed method research articles were finally selected.
The 120 articles were categorized and analyzed by the types of research methods,
measurements, assessment areas, and so on. As results, total 173 test instruments were
used in total 220 times. In the analysis of the types of measurement including domestic,
international, research constructed, measurement devices, 71 domestic test instruments
were used with the highest rate (41.0%). In the analysis of the types of assessment
area, they included 13 test instruments related to a musical area and 161 to nonmusical
areas such as social, biophysical, psychological-emotional, communicational, cognitive,
and overall developmental areas. Of them, 73 test instruments were used for assessing
the psychological-emotional area, which was the highest rate (42.1%) of the research
contents. On the view of the recent trend that evidence-based practice has been highlighted,
it is very important to provide the objective measurement and evidence-based clinical
data collection from music therapy. This study suggests that various test instruments for
verifying effectiveness of music therapy have been used in research studies of music
therapy in Korea.