The association pathway between music practice and mental health: a study on social connectedness, perceived stress, and anxiety among individuals with piano experience.

OBJECTIVE: To explore the association pathway between daily participation in music practice and mental health indicators, focusing on analyzing the cross-sectional network relationships among performing flow experience, social connectedness, perceived stress, and anxiety among individuals with piano experience. METHODS: A cross-sectional online survey design was adopted, yielding a total of 890 valid questionnaires. Based on the presence or absence of piano practice experience, the sample was divided into two questionnaire coding groups: Group A (no experience/stopped practicing, n = 318) and Group B (has experience/currently practicing, n = 572). Independent sample t-tests were used to compare differences in mental health indicators between the groups. Within Group B, Pearson correlation analysis and Bootstrap resampling techniques were employed to test specific serial indirect effects and the moderating role of practice years. RESULTS: (1) The social connectedness of Group B was significantly higher than that of Group A, and their perceived stress and anxiety were significantly lower than those of Group A, but the effect sizes of the group differences were small; (2) Within Group B, flow experience was significantly positively correlated with social connectedness, while social connectedness was significantly negatively correlated with stress and anxiety, and flow had no significant direct correlation with stress and anxiety; (3) The serial indirect effect model supported the significance of the specific indirect pathway of "flow experience → social connectedness → perceived stress → anxiety" (the confidence interval did not contain 0), but the total indirect effect and the moderating effect of practice years did not receive significant statistical support. CONCLUSION: The relationship between flow experience and lower stress or anxiety in piano practice is not a simple direct mapping, but constitute a specific cross-sectional statistical association pathway through the potential joint transformation of social connectedness and perceived stress. The results provide empirical clues for exploring the associations between daily arts participation and mental health.