The Importance of Preventive Pedagogy for Coping with MPA~Attention to Moderation of Maladaptive Perfectionism~

Introduction
Music Performance anxiety (MPA) is a major problem that plagues manymusicians. Given the professional nature of musicians, who must perform better under
the gaze of an audience and in situations that cannot be corrected, which is unique to theperforming arts, it is hard to avoid having anxiety about performing. In fact, musicians
are reported to suffer more from anxiety than the general workforce (Vaag et al.,2016a), and more reported receiving psychotherapy (Vaag et al., 2016b). Some degreeof performance anxiety can have positive effects, such as excitement and exhilaration in
performance (Kenny, 2011), while severe MPA can lead to a decline in performance
quality due to excessive tension (Kenny, 2011; Yoshie et al., 2009). Furthermore, in
addition to such problems related to their careers as musicians, MPA can also threaten
their well-being, and there is an urgent need for methods to deal with MPA. However,despite this situation, research on MPA logics and coping strategies is still in its
formative stages (Kenny, 2011), and more research is needed.

1This paper aims to discuss the importance of MPA prevention in educationalsettings, paying attention to the developmental mitigation of extrinsic perfectionism instudents from childhood to adolescence. Furthermore, this paper also aims to provide
suggestions for music education for MPA prevention and future research direction
based on the limitations of this paper.

MPA Prevention
MPA can be treated with psychological approaches such as behavioural therapy,
cognitive therapy, cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), pharmacological approaches,yoga, music therapy, and the Alexander technique treatment (Kenny & Ackermann,2009). And these have been shown to be effective to some extent by research (Kenny etal., 2014). Reviews suggested that CBT (Brugués, 2011; Kenny, 2005) and cognitiveand behavioural therapy (McGinnis & Milling, 2005) may be particularly effective, but
methodological flaws in the research have not led to robust conclusions (Brugués, 2011;
Kenny, 2005; McGinnis & Milling, 2005). While the effectiveness of various treatments
has been studied to date, albeit still inadequately, addressing MPA is beginning to point
out its limitations. First, MPA treatment has been only moderately effective (Kenny &Osborne, 2006). Also, even in other well-researched areas other than MPA, which is in2

its formative stages, anxiety is rarely cured (Kenny, 2011). For these reasons, it has
been suggested that prevention is the best way to deal with MPA (Brugués, 2011;
Kenny & Ackermann, 2009; Kenny & Osborne, 2006) and studies showed that it should
be done early on (Fehm & Schmidt, 2006).
Although performance anxiety in children has been overlooked, Ryan (2005)
shows that children also experience it. Moreover, the symptoms tend to be more severe
in young musicians than in older musicians (Biasutti & Concina, 2014; Butković et al.,2022; Kenny et al., 2014), with adolescent students already at the level of music
students and professionals in terms of distress (Fehm & Schmidt, 2006) and their
quality is similar (Kenny & Osborne, 2006). In other words, MPA tends to begin inchildhood, and around adolescence, young musicians begin to have symptoms similar to
those of adults, with younger musicians tending to have the most severe symptoms.
Kenny (2011) also considers prevention and pedagogy as a set and points out that they
are necessary for all young musicians and students. In light of the above, prevention is avery important way to deal with MPA and prevention should take place in earlychildhood or, at the latest, before adolescence.
Perfectionism

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Focusing on perfectionism as a way to prevent MPA until around adolescencemay be effective because while many studies have shown that perfectionism is a factor
in MPA (Kenny, 2011; Kenny et al., 2014; McNeil et al., 2022; Sarikaya & Kurtaslan,2018), one study reported that MPA symptoms and perfectionism are strongly
correlated in adolescent students as well (Patston & Osborne, 2016). This study
suggests that perfectionism is a major factor in MPA in adolescents, and it can beinferred that interventions for perfectionism are effective in preventing MPA throughadolescence (Patston & Osborne, 2016). However, perfectionism is not necessarily aproblem for musicians because it is multidimensional, and there are elements ofperfectionism that work adaptively for musicians and elements that work maladaptively(Stoeber & Eismann, 2007). In fact, it has been said that maladaptive perfectionism
leads to abandonment of coping and more severe MPA, while adaptive perfectionism
encourages musicians to strive for, which can lead to better performance (Stoeber &Eismann, 2007; Stoeber & Otto, 2006). Thus, concentrating on the maladaptive aspectsof perfectionism is probably more effective in managing MPA (Butković et al., 2022).
Perfectionism can also be categorised as personal standards perfectionism (PSP)and evaluative concerns perfectionism (ESP), which occurs due to pressure from others
and the environment (Frost et al., 1990; McNeil et al., 2022). PSP refers to striving to4

better oneself and setting higher goals, and has been found to have a positive impact,
involving functional coping that leads to more effort and higher achievement (Kobori etal., 2011; McNeil et al., 2022; Stoeber & Eismann, 2007; Stoeber & Otto, 2006). On theother hand, ESP involves external factors such as expectations and evaluations fromothers (Frost et al., 1990; McNeil et al., 2022), and individuals with high ECP are more
likely to engage in avoidant coping (McNeil et al., 2022). Although avoidance coping
was found to moderate the link between ECP and distress (O'Connor & O'Connor,
2003), it did not moderate the relationship between ESP and symptoms in the MPA
study (McNeil et al., 2022). Whether or not avoidance coping mitigates ESP needs to betested by further research. However, in the long run, avoiding practice and challenge,
and the low tendency to engage in problem-focused coping may not be a positive
function for musicians who need to practice daily in order to deliver better
performances. In conclusion, a certain degree of internal perfectionism is adaptive andhas a positive function that contributes to performance improvement, while extrinsic
perfectionism is dysfunctional, and avoidance coping has a significant negative impact.
These tendencies seem to be similar for young musicians, Stoeber & Eismann (2007)
reported that perfectionistic striving has positive effects, while external motivation isassociated with negative reactions to not being perfect. Therefore, it seems that5

moderating the development of extrinsic perfectionism, among other aspects ofperfectionism, may lead to effective MPA prevention.
Pedagogy
The fact that external factors of MPA in children to adolescents mainly refer toteachers and parents, raises the possibility that educational policies and processes arecultivating perfectionism and associated MPA in children. In addition, MPA tends toincrease with the length of musical experience (Patston & Osborne, 2016), which may
suggest that current music education is fostering MPA. It has also been suggested thatthe accumulation of practice due to poor teaching methods can be a factor in MPA(Patston, 2014). It was reported that the performance environment and setting can
influence students' anxiety, and that they are most nervous in front of teachers andprofessors (Fehm & Schmidt, 2006). Based on these facts, it is likely undeniable that forchildren, the educational environment and methods of teaching are external pressuresthat generate anxiety in the students.
To avoid cultivating perfectionism in students, it is first necessary to change theidea that a perfect performance is the only success in music (Jeong & Ryan, 2022).
Specifically, a measure other than perfection could be established by emphasising
expression, not just technique (Ryan, 2004), process, not just results (Patston & Waters,

6

2015). Establishing realistic goals for each individual (Patston, 2014) would preventchildren from feeling undue pressure for unrealistic goals. In addition, more proactive
MPA interventions, such as fostering metacognition in educational settings (Biasutti &Concina, 2014) and by cultivating self-efficacy (McPherson & McCormick, 2006;
Sarikaya & Kurtaslan, 2018) has been proposed to promote adaptability to performanceanxiety. Furthermore, many music teachers focus on teaching performance skills, butshould also teach students how to deal with actual performance anxiety (Biasutti &Concina, 2014; Patston, 2014; Patston & Osborne, 2016; Stoeber & Eismann, 2007).
Under these educational policies, children should be given many opportunities topresent their work in a secure, tension and criticism-free environment (Kenny &Ackermann, 2009). Specifically, it can be suggested that children be given opportunities
to perform in public on a daily basis, either in the form of regular pair lessons or bypresenting to other students at the end of a lesson. This is because, unlike otherperforming arts (drama and dance), music lessons are mostly one-on-one, and students
usually have only a very limited number of people, such as teachers and parents, tolisten to their performances. By providing these daily opportunities to perform to otherstudents, they will gain the experience of enjoying playing in a tension-freeenvironment.

7

In summary, it is important to keep in mind that music education should not be aplace that puts external pressure on children. Specifically, it is important to establish an
educational policy based on realistic goals that are not solely oriented toward perfection,
to teach students how to cope with anxiety before and after performances, and toenhance a comfortable, low-tension performance environment. Such music education
can be expected to reduce the student's sense of external pressures that give rise tomaladaptive perfectionism, and this will help limit the development of non-functional
perfectionism. Thus, by removing the dysfunctional aspect of perfectionism, which has
been strongly correlated with MPA in adolescents, it may be possible to prevent MPA
in adolescents.
Limitations
The first limitation of this study is that there is little literature available on
perfectionism experienced by children, and further research is needed before firm
conclusions can be drawn. While research suggests that external pressure has a morenegative effect on the mental state of musicians, Jeong & Ryan (2022) suggest that
intrinsic perfectionism may put more pressure on young musicians. At the same time,
however, Jeong & Ryan (2022) also suggest that this internal pressure may be due to8internalisation of external pressure Thus, further research is needed to confirm thispoint.
A second limitation is that even if perfectionism in childhood and adolescence isalleviated, it does not necessarily mean that perfectionism will be alleviated in the futurewhen one becomes a musician. This is because the elements implied by perfectionism
may differ between professionals and amateurs because of the different concerns(Kenny, 2011) and required performance levels between professionals and students. In
particular, this paper focused on perfectionism within the context of the student's
educational environment. In the case of professionals however, the external factors are
more critical, competitive, and public, and they also include the more significant factorof their own lives being affected by their evaluations. Therefore, even if one canmitigate extrinsic perfectionism during the growth process, it does not necessarily
prevent extrinsic perfectionism or MPA in adulthood. Considering that perfectionism ismultifaceted, there is a need for investigating the mindset about perfectionism by age
groups, such as childhood (Jeong & Ryan, 2022), adolescence, college students, andprofessionals.
Finally, there is a need to examine the musical genres (Papageorgi et al., 2013),
performance forms (Fehm & Schmidt, 2006), gender (Butković et al., 2022; Kenny et9al., 2014; Sarikaya & Kurtaslan, 2018), and their cultural background (PerdomoGuevara, 2014) in order to make an informed conclusion, and this paper does notinclude those categories in its discussion. In addition, the seriousness of MPA inchildhood to adolescence differed by musical genre (Nusseck et al., 2015). Therefore,
MPA research that takes into account the impact of these distinctions on children andadolescent music students, and research on MPA and perfectionism is needed toconsider MPA prevention.

Conclusion
The present paper argues that MPA prevention through educational interventions
that pay attention to mitigating extrinsic perfectionism development during the preadolescent period is effective in dealing with MPA. As the rationale for this, first, thispaper presented that MPA prevention from an early age is currently considered the mosteffective way to cope with MPA, as current treatments are not very effective and are
difficult to treat once the disease has developed. Secondly, this paper focused on thefactor of perfectionism, which was strongly correlated with MPA in adolescence, anddiscussed the possibility that the externalising aspect may have a negative impact on
MPA, especially in the educational setting as a major external factor among students.

10

The discussion then focused on education as the main source of external pressure forstudents, and a proposal was made on the necessity of education that takes MPA
prevention into consideration and what it should be, since the way music education isconducted may put external pressure on children. In addition, considering the closed,
one-on-one lessons in music education, this paper suggested that creating opportunities
for students to hear other students perform from their regular lessons may lead to the
reduction of MPA. The degree of effectiveness of this approach should be verified
through future research.
However, limitations exist in the present paper. As a premise, it is difficult to draw
confident conclusions given the paucity of studies focusing on children. Also, while thepresent paper interpreted perfectionism due to extrinsic pressure as dysfunctional, there
are studies that suggest the opposite, that self-initiated perfectionism is dysfunctional.
However, since that study points to the possibility of internalisation of extrinsic pressure
as a factor for self-induced pressure, future research on these points is needed to verify
this. Furthermore, this paper discusses MPA without considering the factors of gender,
cultural background, musical genre, and performance form, which are believed toinfluence MPA. Therefore, it is necessary to conduct a review that takes note of thedifferences after studies comparing these classifications have been conducted.

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The present paper sheds light on the importance of discussing the nature of
education for MPA prevention, which will contribute to further research on musiceducation methods. In this way, it will contribute to the development of music students
who will be more adaptable to performance anxiety in the future. This paper will also
serve to reaffirm the importance of prevention, perfectionism, and music education
elements within the larger theme of dealing with MPA and will contribute to improving
the problem of MPA that plagues many musicians.

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