Dataset for Systematic Review: Evaluating the Quality of Evidence for Music Therapy Interventions for Children Aged 6-12 Years with Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder

Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is one of the most common childhood neurodevelopmental disorders. Given the rising prevalence in recent years, novel treatments such as music therapy have gained attention as potential treatment methods for children with ADHD. The present systematic review collected and evaluated the quality of evidence in music therapy intervention studies for children aged 6 to 12 with ADHD, assessing methodological rigour and presence of questionable research practices. Reports were taken from multiple databases, namely PubMed, PsychINFO, and SCOPUS, and were published within a 10-year period between 2013 and 2024. Out of the 425 unique studies gathered, only four studies made it to the analysis stage after meeting all inclusion criteria. Of these four studies, only three met all essential quality indicators, which meant that they were adequately designed to produce meaningful results. However, they proceeded to score poorly in the additional quality indicators, suggesting that they engaged in various questionable research practices. Findings showed that there is a lack of published studies on the effectiveness of music for ADHD in children and the quality of evidence provided by existing studies is lacking. Future research should consider conducting longitudinal and follow-up studies to assess whether the effects of music therapy can be sustained in the long-term. This repository collects the dataset for the preregistered systematic review.