| Abstract | Objective: College students in vocal performance and theatre arts both participate in voice lessons, but encounter differences in how they are educated about vocal hygiene. The purpose of this study is to determine if there are differences in vocal hygiene behaviors between vocal performance and theatre arts students.
Methods / Design: A total of 22 undergraduate college students enrolled in voice lessons in either the school of music (n = 9) or theatre arts program (n = 13) completed ratings of 34 vocal hygiene behaviors at the beginning of the fall semester and end of the spring semester for five consecutive semesters. A two-way repeated measures ANOVA was conducted for each vocal hygiene behavior to determine if there was an interaction of major and time and a main effect of major or time. Alpha was set to 0.05.
Results: A significant two-way interaction was found for use voice until it hurts, F(4, 24) = 4.319, p = .009, and have a tired voice, F(4, 20) = 3.058, p = .041. Ratings of use voice until it hurts were lower in theatre arts students at times 4 (end of sophomore year) and time 5 (beginning of junior year) compared to time 1 (beginning of freshman year). Ratings for have a tired voice were lower at time 4 for theatre students compared to school of music students. A main effect of major was found for ratings of talk in a dusty environment, talk loudly, sleep under 5 hours, cough, and sing. Theatre arts students presented with higher mean ratings of talk in a dusty environment and talk loudly while the remaining variables were rated higher by school of music students.
Conclusions: Differences in vocal hygiene behaviors do exist between students enrolled in voice lessons in the school of music and theatre arts program and differences between majors emerge as their academic programs progress.
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