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Do Daily Music Listeners Have Less Anxiety and Depression?

CSEF · 2023 Behavioral & Social Sciences Second Award

Kricorian Christopher · 8

Overview

Music is an important part of our everyday lives, especially with the growth of businesses like Spotify. At the same time, anxiety and depression seem to be more common. Is music merely a distraction, or is it more important than it lets on? My hypothesis was that people who listen to music more often would have lower rates of anxiety or depression. Although showing this relationship would not fully prove that music causes lower anxiety and depression, it would suggest that listening to music may help. The hypothesis would be especially supported if people who listen to music often get more psychological benefits from music. To test this hypothesis, I created a survey using several questionnaires previously developed by scholars: the BMRQ to test how individuals benefit from music, the GAD-7 to assess anxiety and the PHQ-9 to examine levels of depression. My hypothesis was not supported by the data: daily music listeners were actually significantly more anxious than those who listened less often. Upon further analysis, I found that daily music listeners were significantly younger than non-daily-listeners. Younger people also had far higher levels of anxiety and depression. This confound may have complicated the relationship between music and mental health. Further research is needed to understand reasons why people use music and whether it contributes to their mental health. The high levels of anxiety and depression among young people were also significant on their own. Research is needed to understand the causes of this mental health crisis and whether music could play a part in the solution.

Source coverage

This record comes from a published award list, not a complete project archive. Its abstract comes from CSEF's public project showcase as archived by the Internet Archive before judging (https://web.archive.org/web/20230401224130/https://ca-csef.zfairs.com/showcase/ShowcaseInfo?f=838e60b7-ea75-46e8-865c-fde4864244b3); the version presented may differ.

Awards (2)

Competition history

  • CSEF 2023 Behavioral & Social Sciences · Entry J0431

Resources

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