The purpose of this study is to conduct a meta-analysis by aggregating results from
studies of emotion-related variable in music therapy for elderly. 36 of master and
doctoral theses and journal articles, published from 2000 to 2015, were analyzed by being
categorizing into independent variable, dependent variable, and moderating variable.
According to the study results, overall mean effect size from total 65 effect sizes was
-0.280 and this result was statistically significant. Among the independent variables
which were analyzed by being divided into active, receptive, and combined activity, the
variable of active music therapy had a highest effect size. Moreover, dependent variables
were classified by sub-category based on a purpose of treating and they had high effect
sizes for every category and the effect size of feeling loneliness was biggest. Among
moderating variables, elderlies with dementia showed a large effect size according to
object types and over 16 times of treatment session had a biggest effect size. Lastly, in
the analysis based on researcher’s background, there was no difference between music
therapy category and other categories.