As populations age, it is critical to understand how psycho-social wellbeing supports successful ageing. The health sector is increasingly asking how best to improve social connection and affective state because of their positive influence on overall health. Choral participation has been proposed as a particularly effective way to improve socio-emotional wellbeing, due to benefits of music exposure, social opportunities, and the act of singing. It may be, however, that improvements in wellbeing are also dependent on individual attitudes towards participation, including preference, motivation, and exercising agency. There is a need for studies that account for the influence of choice and preference as they may predict benefits for wellbeing. Findings are presented here from a quasi-experimental study exploring whether choral participation yields greater benefits for wellbeing in the long term (seven months) than does participation in an exercise group that shares some of the nonspecific characteristics of choirs such as social interaction and exposure to music. Emotional wellbeing increased for both groups, while there was a small but significant decrease in mental wellbeing for both groups between the first and second time points; no other statistically significant changes were observed. Analysis of qualitative data indicated that members of choirs found the act of singing to be intrinsically rewarding, while members of exercise groups relied instead on the benefits of social interaction to keep them committed to an exercise regime; however, themes such as the importance of social connection, confidence, improved mental and emotional state, and overall improved wellbeing were common to both groups. Effects on the wellbeing of the members of the two kinds of group did not differ significantly despite differences in their self-reported motivation for joining and participating. No changes were observed in measures of social connection or empathy across the length of the study.

随着人口的老龄化，了解心理社会福利如何支持成功的老龄化至关重要。由于卫生保健和情感状态对整体健康产生积极影响，因此卫生保健部门日益在询问如何最好地改善社会联系和情感状态。由于音乐接触，社交机会和歌唱的好处，合唱已被认为是改善社会情感幸福的一种特别有效的方法。但是，幸福感的改善也可能取决于个人对参与的态度，包括偏好，动机和行使代理权。有必要进行研究以考虑选择和偏好的影响，因为它们可能预测幸福感。一项半实验研究在这里提出了研究结果，该研究探讨了合唱参与是否能比长期参加一个具有类似合唱团一些非特定特征的运动组（例如社交互动和接触）对长期（七个月）的幸福感产生更大的好处。音乐。两组的情绪健康都增加了，而在第一和第二个时间点之间，两组的心理健康都有小幅但显着的下降。没有观察到其他统计学上显着的变化。对定性数据的分析表明，合唱团成员发现唱歌是一种内在的回报，而运动团体的成员则依靠社交互动的好处来保持他们对运动制度的投入。然而，社交关系的重要性，信心，改善的心理和情绪状态以及整体上改善的幸福感这两个群体都是共同的主题。尽管他们自我报告的加入和参与动机有所不同，但对这两组成员的幸福感的影响并没有显着差异。在整个研究过程中，未观察到社交联系或移情的变化。