The Influence of Psychosocial Skills on the Development of Musical Abilities: Cross-Sectional Results From Secondary School Pupils in Latvia

Psychosocial skills are variables related to human behavior, beliefs, and attitudes and shape social interactions, learning processes, academic achievements, and general goal-directed behavior. Psychosocial skills seem particularly important during the adolescent period when large changes in goal setting, learning attitudes, and ability development take place. However, it remains unclear to what degree the growth of musical abilities is influenced by psychosocial skills in musically gifted children and children who are not musically gifted. Hence, the aim of this study is to determine the impact of psychosocial skills on music listening abilities beyond demographics, musical training, and cognitive factors. At four secondary schools in Latvia (two general schools and two schools for musically gifted individuals), we tested 191 adolescents (aged 11–18 years) with an online test battery assessing musical listening abilities, cognitive ability, socio-demographics, musical training activities, and a range of psychosocial skills. Data were analyzed through a series of hierarchical regression models determining the effect of different groups of independent variables. Results indicate that, in general, psychosocial variables make a substantial contribution to musical listening abilities beyond demographics, musical training, and cognitive capacity. When students from general secondary schools and schools for the musically gifted were analyzed separately, the contribution of psychosocial skills differed noticeably, with a greater relative importance for musically gifted children. Thus, the results suggest an important role of psychosocial variables in musical giftedness education. However, the specific role of individual psychosocial variables such as grit still needs to be clarified in future studies.