There are a multitude of influences on adolescents’ decisions to enroll in elective instrumental music ensembles. While some music teachers might rely on external rewards such as end-of-year trips to encourage retention from year to year, middle school students’ sociocultural and psychological characteristics may best account for their intentions to continue in band or orchestra. I examined needs satisfaction variables from Self-Determination Theory and task values from Expectancy Value Theory alongside environmental factors such as parent and peer influence as well as socioeconomic status (SES) as predictors of adolescent instrumental students’ elective intentions (N = 42). Data were analyzed using structural equation modeling. Parents tended to exert a large amount of influence over the extent to which participants’ needs were satisfied and a small amount of influence over the task values of their children. Concurrently, peers and SES played small but important roles in the development of elective intentions. Moreover, when parents and teachers were supportive of students’ autonomy, competence, and relatedness, instrumental music learning tasks were valued. Task values, in turn, strongly predicted middle school instrumental students’ intentions to persist and enroll in future instrumental music courses.

有很多影响青少年决定参加选修器乐合奏的决定。虽然一些音乐教师可能会依靠诸如年终旅行等外部奖励来鼓励年复一年的留级，但中学生的社会文化和心理特征可能最能说明他们打算继续留在乐队或管弦乐队中的意图。我检查了自我决定理论中的需求满意度变量和期望值理论中的任务值以及父母和同伴影响等环境因素以及社会经济地位（SES）作为青少年工具学生选修意图的预测因素（N = 42)。使用结构方程模型分析数据。父母倾向于对参与者的需求得到满足的程度施加很大的影响，而对孩子的任务价值观施加的影响很小。同时，同伴和 SES 在选修意向的发展中发挥了小而重要的作用。此外，当家长和老师支持学生的自主性、能力和相关性时，器乐学习任务就会受到重视。反过来，任务值强烈预测了初中器乐学生坚持并参加未来器乐课程的意图。