The purposes of this study were to compare the age of onset of the voice change in African American, White, and Hispanic male students, as well as to describe characteristics of the changing male voice in fourth-, fifth-, and sixth-grade students, using Cooksey’s maturation stages. Participants included volunteers from two urban elementary schools, five suburban elementary schools, one suburban middle school, and one urban middle school (African American n = 62, White n = 58, and Hispanic n = 77). Participants were recorded individually performing three ascending and three descending glissandi on an “ah” syllable. Results indicated that approximately 46% of fourth-grade participants, 62% of fifth-grade participants, and 67% of sixth-grade participants were classified as having changing voices. Results of a one-way, between-subjects ANOVA revealed no significant main effect for ethnicity, although a larger percentage of African American participants’ voices were classified as changing voices as compared with those of Hispanic and White participants. The overall mean age of onset for participants in this study was approximately 11.20 years of age.
Baken, R.J., & Orlikoff, R.F. (2000). Clinical measurement of speech and voice (2nd ed.). San Diego, CA: Singular.
2.
Barresi, A.L., & Bless, D. ( 1984). The relation of selected aerodynamic variables to the perception of tessitura pitches in the adolescent changing voice. In M. Runfola (Ed.), Research symposium on the male adolescent voice (pp. 97-110). Buffalo: State University of New York Press.
3.
Cooksey, J.M. ( 1984). The male adolescent changing voice: Some new perspectives . In M. Runfola (Ed.), Research symposium on the male adolescent voice (pp. 4-59). Buffalo : State University of New York Press.
4.
Cooksey, J.M. ( 1985). Vocal-acoustical measures of prototypical patterns related to voice maturation in the adolescent male. In V. Lawrence (Ed.), Transcripts of the thirteenth symposium, Care of the Professional Voice, Part II: Vocal therapeutics and medicine (pp. 469-480). New York, NY: The Voice Foundation.
5.
Cooksey, J.M. ( 1988). Understanding male-adolescent voice maturation: Some significant contributions by European and American Researchers. In G. Paine (Ed.), Five centuries of choral music: Essays in honor of Howard Swan (pp. 75-92). Stuyvesant, NY : Pendragon.
6.
Cooksey, J.M. ( 1999). Working with the adolescent voice. St. Louis, MO: Concordia.
7.
Cooksey, J.M., & Welch, G.F. ( 1998). Adolescence, singing development and national curricula design. British Journal of Music Education, 15, 99-111.
8.
Cooper, I., & Kuersteiner, J.K. (1970). Teaching junior high school music. Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon .
9.
Curry, E. ( 1940). The pitch characteristics of the adolescent male voice . Speech Monographs, 7, 261-266.
10.
Friesen, J.H. ( 1972). Vocal mutation in the adolescent male: Its chronology and a comparison with fluctuations in musical interest. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Oregon, Eugene.
11.
Groom, M.D. ( 1984). A descriptive analysis of development in adolescent male voices during the summer time period. In M. Runfola (Ed.), Research symposium on the male adolescent voice (pp. 80-85). Buffalo: State University of New York Press.
12.
Herman-Giddens, M.E., Wang, L., & Koch, G. ( 2001). Secondary sexual characteristics in boys: Estimates from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey III, 1988-1994. Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, 155, 1022-1028.
13.
Hollien, H., Green, R., & Massey, K. ( 1994). Longitudinal research on adolescent voice change in males . Journal of Acoustical Society of America, 96, 2646-2654.
14.
Hollien, H., & Malcik, E. ( 1962). Adolescent voice change in southern negro males. Speech Monographs, 29, 53-58.
15.
Hollien, H., & Malcik, E. ( 1967). Evaluation of cross-sectional studies of adolescent voice change in males. Speech Monograph, 34, 80-84.
16.
Hollien, H., Malcik, E., & Hollien, B. ( 1965). Adolescent voice change in southern White males. Speech Monographs, 32, 87-90.
17.
Hughes, B.F. ( 1984). A study of vocal maturation in White and nonwhite adolescent males of the same chronological age. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa.
18.
Juul, A., Teilmann, G., Scheike, T., Hertel, N.T., Holm, K., Laursen, K.M., . . . Skakkebaek, N.E. (2006). Pubertal development in Danish children: Comparison of recent European and US data. International Journal of Andrology, 29, 247-255.
19.
Karr, J.P. ( 1988). A vocal survey of male adolescent voices grades six through ten: A study on the incidence of changed voices with relation to extant theories . Unpublished master’s thesis, University of Louisville , Kentucky.
20.
Killian, J.N. ( 1999). A description of vocal maturation among fifth- and sixth-grade boys. Journal of Research in Music Education, 47, 357-369.
21.
McKenzie, D. ( 1956). Training the boy’s changing voice. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.
22.
Moore, M.M. ( 1995). The adolescent male changing voice: A study of age and attitudinal comparisons. Unpublished master’s thesis, Texas Woman’s University.
23.
Morris, R.J. ( 1997). Speaking fundamental frequency characteristics of 8- through 10-year-old White- and African-American boys. Journal of Communication Disorders, 30, 101-116.
24.
Rutkowski, J. ( 1984). Two year results of a longitudinal study investigating the validity of Cooksey’s theory for training the adolescent male voice . In M. Runfola (Ed.), Research symposium on the male adolescent voice (pp. 86-96). Buffalo : State University of New York Press.
25.
Sturdy, L.A. ( 1939). The status of voice range of junior high school boys. Unpublished master’s thesis, University of Southern California, Los Angeles.
26.
Sun, S.S., Schubert, C.M., Chumlea, W.C., Roche, A.F., Kulin, H.E., Lee, P.A., . . . Ryan, A.S. ( 2002). National estimates of the timing of sexual maturation and racial differences among US children. Pediatrics, 110, 911-920.
27.
Swanson, F.J. ( 1977). The male singing voice ages 8 to 18. Cedar Rapids, IA: Laurance.
Tanner, J.M. ( 1989). Foetus into man: Physical growth from conception to maturity (Rev. ed.). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University.
30.
Willis, E., & Kenny, D.T. ( 2008). Relationship between weight, speaking fundamental frequency, and the appearance of phonational gaps in the adolescent male changing voice . Journal of Voice, 22, 451-471.
