Our goal in this section is to contribute to learning about the different uses of Requalify in research, especially in the areas of health and education. On this occasion, we will address Music Therapy as a psychosocial approach and its main effects through a scoping review, using Requalify for data analysis.
The scientific article is accompanied by a brief reflective reading guide and corresponding commented answers, with the aim of guiding the analysis of the texts and broadening the understanding of the theme, methodological choices, and different possibilities for applying the software.
Moreira, MES, & Pedrosa, FG (2025). Music Therapy as a Psychosocial Approach to Child and Adolescent Mental Health: A Scoping Review. Pluralities in Mental Health,14(1): 117-131. https://psico.fae.emnuvens.com.br/psico/article/view/534/406
Article summary
This study presents a scoping review aimed at investigating the results of Music Therapy as a psychosocial approach in the mental health care of children and adolescents in Brazil. The authors seek to identify the evidence available in the literature, fill existing gaps in the field, and contribute to the qualification of professionals working in psychosocial care. The bibliographic search, conducted in 2024, selected six articles, which were subsequently analyzed using the Requalify software.
Guide and Reflections on the Article
1. What is the research topic?
The research topic is Music Therapy as a psychosocial approach to the mental health care of children and adolescents in Brazil.
2. How is the choice of topic justified?
The choice of topic is justified by the author's experience as an intern at the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Reference Center (CERSAMi-Northeast), in Belo Horizonte (MG). At this institution, she developed Music Therapy activities based on the Social and Community Music Therapy approach. Based on this experience and given the scarcity of bibliographic references on the topic, the authors justify conducting a scoping review.
Furthermore, the authors provide historical context for the care associated with children and adolescents before and after the Psychiatric Reform, highlighting the social relevance of the topic. Healthcare institutions frequently neglected the care of children and adolescents, with hygienist practices prevailing in mental health care. Subsequently, the creation of Child and Adolescent Psychosocial Care Centers (CAPSi), along with the Statute of the Child and Adolescent (ECA), represented a significant advance in the comprehensive care of this group.
However, in Belo Horizonte, until 2016, the existing services for the treatment of mental suffering, also associated with alcohol and drug use in the child and adolescent population, could not meet the demands of society, which is why these other centers emerged: CERSAMi Noroeste and the Center for Adolescent and Child Psychiatry (CePAI). In line with the guidelines of the ECA (Statute of the Child and Adolescent), which advocate professional training, prioritization of resources and actions aimed at childhood and adolescence, implementation of socio-educational measures, and recognition of the adolescent as a subject of rights, a critical reflection on the practices adopted by health professionals becomes necessary in order to promote the comprehensive care of adolescents.
In this context, music therapy presents itself as a psychosocial strategy capable of contributing to this model of care, justifying the realization of the present study.
3. What are the objectives of the study?
The aim of the study is "to investigate in the literature the results of music therapy interventions with children and adolescents in the Brazilian psychosocial context".
4. How is scoping defined by the authors?
Scoping review is a "methodology that aims to map the existing literature on a broad and complex topic, offering an overview and exploring the breadth of available literature."
5. Methodologically, how was the scoping review conducted?
First, the research objective was defined: Music Therapy as a psychosocial intervention for children and adolescents in Brazil.
The search strategy included the following descriptors: “music therapy” and “psychosocial” and “adolescence”; “music therapy” and “psychosocial” and “young people”; “music therapy” and “psychosocial” and “children”. The databases used were the Brazilian Journal of Music Therapy, InCantare Journal, CAPES Periodicals Database, PePSIC and SciELO.
The inclusion criteria were: a) articles published in Portuguese, b) studies that addressed the practice of Music Therapy with children and young people, and c) works produced by music therapists or that address the practice of music therapists.
Articles that did not address the target population (children and adolescents), that did not discuss Music Therapy, or that did not consider the psychosocial context of Music Therapy were excluded.
Regarding the time frame, a specific period was not defined, as a preliminary search revealed a scarcity of publications on the subject.
Finally, the Requalify software was used for data analysis.
6. How did Requalify contribute to the data analysis?
The bibliographic search yielded 334 materials across the various databases consulted. Subsequently, after the inclusion and exclusion process, followed by reading the titles and abstracts, eight articles were selected. Finally, reading the full text allowed for the definition of the final sample, composed of six articles, which met all the criteria established by the authors in this scoping review.
The selected articles correspond to different methodological designs, including case studies, qualitative research, mixed methods research, and literature review.
The authors used Requalify software in the data analysis phase. The program has functions to identify general and specific themes within the set of texts and within each text separately. The process consists of extracting useful information and organizing it as a set of texts. As described in the article, the software "classifies the proximity between the texts, the themes, and verifies the relevance of each of these themes."
To organize the results, the authors used the functions of "tags," which generally integrate the information from the textual corpus, while "subtags" present the more specific content of the texts.
On the other hand, the researchers visualized the organization of the results during the various stages of the process, using the graphic and image resources of Requalify. Initially, the word cloud identified the words in the corpus that appear most frequently; subsequently, the dendrogram showed the main themes and their relationships between the categories, and through network analysis, the frequency of the themes was identified through the nodes and their centrality.
7. What were the main findings of Requalify?
The program identified 10 tags and 32 subtags. The article highlights that these categories were created without the researchers' intervention, being generated by the Requalify program. For a more in-depth look at these categories and a description of each one produced by the software, we invite you to read Table 1 in the results section of the article. As an example, we present one of the tags that the article describes as follows:
Tag: Importance of a multidisciplinary approach
Description: "The study highlights the complexity of self-harm in adolescence and the importance of a multidisciplinary approach involving mental health professionals and the family. This collaboration is essential to developing more effective and comprehensive therapeutic strategies in the treatment of adolescents with self-harming behaviors."
Next, the study shows that after the tag discovery process using the software, the authors selected some of them, as they allowed them to achieve the objective of the review. The chosen subtags were: “impact of Music Therapy on emotional regulation; music as a therapeutic tool; clinical device in CAPSi; gaps in the literature; impact of Music Therapy on social performance; and behavioral and psychological improvements”.
Similarly, the dendrogram allowed for the observation of relationships between categories, their similarities and differences, enabling the analysis of emerging structures. Thus, the authors describe some of the results: “impacts of Music Therapy on social performance are connected to behavioral and psychological improvements; changes in personal and relational perception are connected to the impacts of Music Therapy in vulnerable contexts; the strengthening of subjectivity and identity is connected to emotional regulation and expression and socialization.”
Finally, the results show that the main effects of music therapy are related to its impact on social performance and emotional expression.
8. What new research questions could arise from this study?
The study highlights the importance of developing more systematic interventions for the studied group, as it revealed a diversity of approaches and techniques used in Music Therapy.
In this context, new research can be directed towards developing and implementing rigorous assessment instruments capable of producing more consistent evidence on the effects of music therapy. Furthermore, the importance of training professionals who work with this approach is highlighted.
Getting to know the authors
Maria Eduarda Soares Moreira. Undergraduate student. Federal University of Minas Gerais. Belo Horizonte-MG, Brazil.
Frederico Gonçalves Pedrosa. Adjunct Professor at the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG), where he coordinates the Research Advisory Center (NAPq) of the School of Music. He is a permanent faculty member in the Music Graduate Program and a collaborator in the Neuroscience Graduate Program (UFMG). His scientific production focuses on the intersection between Music Therapy, Psychometrics, and Artificial Intelligence, with an emphasis on the development of assistive technologies and computational models for mental health. He holds a PhD in Music (UFMG), a Master's degree in Music (UFPR), and a Bachelor's degree in Music Therapy, specializing in Artificial Intelligence (UFV). Information extracted from his Lattes CV. http://lattes.cnpq.br/9227138663195042
