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Summary article Can music preference indicate mental health status in young people
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Summary article Can music preference indicate mental health status in young people?•There is a growing concern among professionals over the sheer amount of time adolescents are
exposed to a broad range of media, including music and music videos, and what effects they might
have on their emotional wellbeing.
•Concerns raised in the media focus on the link between music subcultures and behaviours including
suicide, violence, theft, promiscuity, and drug use.
The functions of music for adolescents
•Music/lyrics can reflect a range of personal adolescent issues including identity, dependence-
independence, separateness-connectedness, values, and perception of the self. Furthermore,
music aids resistance to authority, development of peer relationships, and learning about issues
not communicated by their significant adults. In addition, music is said to regulate emotions by
temporarily allowing an escape from thoughts and feelings or validating thoughts and feelings, and
releasing pent up emotions, anxiety, energy, and anger.
Relationship between music preference and personality.
•The finding that music preference stay relatively stable on a day-to-day basis has meant that such
preferences can be studies with a degree of reliability.
•Findings indicated that preferences for heavy metal correlated with: assertiveness and
aggressiveness, indifference to the feelings of others, moodiness, pessimism, over-sensitivity and
discontentment, and increased likelihood to act on impulses.
•It was found that a preference for pop music was linked with a spectrum of values such as: being
overly responsible, role-conscious and conforming, and struggling with issues of sexuality, peer
acceptance, and negotiation of the balance between dependence and independence.
•Extraversion was more highly correlated with popular music than heavy metal music.
Music preference, self-harm and suicide
•Several studies have rejected the notion that music listening causes suicide but may be more
suggestive of suicide vulnerability.
•Heavy metal preferences did not correlate with suicide risk and in fact was reported by adolescents
to be associated with a positive change in affect.
•Significant associations between rock/metal and suicidal thoughts, acts of deliberate harm,
depression, delinquency, drug-taking behaviour, and family dysfunction were found. This was
especially the case for girls.
Music preference, aggression, antisocial behaviour and drug use.
•Music’s impact on antisocial behaviour has been addressed in a range of studies. Music is thought
to trigger the activation of aggressive thoughts, emotions, expectations and memories, weaken
inhibitions against aggressive behaviour, desensitize reactions to violence, and reduce empathy
towards victims.
Discussion
•The aforementioned research found that preference for heavy metal music and rap music
correlate with a range of antisocial and other behaviour. While the research does not suggest that
music causes such behaviours, it may well be that music preference is indicative of an underlying
emotional disturbance or vulnerability.
•Similarly, heavy metal music, particularly for girls, was associated with self-harm or suicidal
ideation.
•Given that music preference may be indicative of emotional vulnerability, could this notion be
extended to suggest that music preference can be a diagnostic indicator of emotional disturbance?
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