Influence of Music on Youth Behaviors
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Influence of Music on Youth Behaviors
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Influence of music on youth behaviors
Young people who listen to hip hop and rap may be more likely to engage in substance abuse and aggression than those who listen to other types of music, such as country and western or the top 40. According to a new study funded by the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, frequent exposure to music that contains references to vio- lence and substance use is significantly associated with illicit-drug use, problems with alcohol and aggressive behaviors in young people. A positive association was also found between listeners of reggae or techno and alcohol and illicit drug use.
The study raises questions about cur- rent marketing techniques using popular rap and hip hop artists to deliver key advertising messages that promote alco- holic beverages. According to a press release issued by the Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation (PIRE), Meng- Jinn Chen, Ph.D., the study’s lead investi- gator and research scientist at PIRE, stat- ed that “People should be concerned about rap and hip hop being used to mar- ket alcoholic beverages, given the alco- hol, drug and aggression problems among listeners.” This is particularly true, he says, considering the popularity of hip hop and rap in young people today.
Chen and his team suggest that the messages contained in rap and hip hop might also reflect the listening prefer- ences of youngsters who are already pre- disposed to such behaviors, which rein- forces their positive attitudes towards substance use and violence.
The study was carried out using self- administered questionnaires from 1,056 students, ages 15 to 25 years (mean age 18.9; 86% younger than 21 years; 57% female; 62% non-white) attending a Cali- fornia community college. The students received a $20 incentive for participating in the study.
Respondents were asked to indicate their frequency of involvement in (a) music listening based on a list of 15 cate- gories of music; (b) alcohol use and alco- hol-use disorder measured by the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT; Babor et al., 2001); (c) illicit drug use of
marijuana and of club drugs (i.e., methyl- enedioxymethamphetine [MDMA], gamma hydroxybutyrate [GHB], keta- mine; amphetamines and methampheta- mines [e.g., crystal, ice, speed]; and hallu- cinogens (e.g., lysergic acid diethylamide [LSD], mushrooms, and phencyclidine [PCP]); (d) aggressive behaviors (e.g., engaging in a fist fight or gang fight, start- ing a fist fight or shoving match, threaten- ing someone with a gun or knife, and attacking with intent to seriously injure); (e) sensation seeking using the Zucker- man-Kahlman Personality Questionnaire (e.g., degree of preference for going to wild parties, doing “crazy” things for fun, doing scary things, watching sexy movies and acting impulsively). Demographic variables included respondents’ age, gen- der, race/ethnicity, school enrollment status, employment and parents’ level of education.
Nearly all of the respondents (94%) reported listening to music “daily or almost daily,” with rap music the most popular type of music in this sample. The investigators found that the frequency of any alcohol use was positively and signif- icantly associated with frequent listening to heavy metal, alternative music, punk, rap, R&B, reggae, rock and techno (p<0.01), but negatively and significantly associated with world music (p<0.01).
Compared with other music genres, rap music was consistently and positively associated with use of alcohol, malt- liquor, potential alcohol-use disorder, marijuana, club drugs, and aggressive behaviors after controlling for demo- graphic variables, listening to other types of music and sensation seeking.
Some genres of music were negatively associated with substance use and aggressive behavior. Listening to world
music was negatively associated with less alcohol and marijuana use, country and western music associated with less club- drug use, and rock music associated with fewer aggressive behaviors. However, the investigators caution that the negative associations were less consistent than the positive associations and that the type of music consistently related to lower risk (world music) was only “often” listened to by one tenth of the study sample. It would be premature, therefore, to suggest that listening to certain types of music is relat- ed to fewer behavior problems among youth.
The lowest levels of alcohol and mari- juana were reported by Asian-American students compared with the other ethnic groups, also taking into account other variables. Although Asian students were more likely to listen to techno music than whites and Latinos (42% compared with 24% white students and 36% Latinos), they were just as likely to listen to rap music (65% compared with 64% whites and 70% Latinos) but apparently were not as much at risk for substance use. The researchers suggest that “future studies should examine whether factors that are protective of Asian Americans regarding substance use also help lessen the con- nections between substance use and music preference.
While levels of substance use reported by black students were similar to those of students in other non-Asian racial/ethnic groups, the black students reported sig- nificantly more aggressive behavior, tak- ing into account other control variables. The investigators indicate that previous studies (e.g., Barongan et al., 1995; John- son et al., 1995; Wester et al., 1997) report that “aggression expressed in gangsta rap is violence against women, particularly black women,” although this was not measured in the present study.
One of the study limitations is that the respondents were not asked to report the amount of time they spent listening to different types of music, the degree of attention they paid to the lyrics, and to prioritize their music preferences. Because the respondents listened to more than one genre of music, it was not possible to make a clear estimate of the
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Compared with other music genres, rap music was consis- tently and positively associated with use of alcohol, malt-liquor, potential alcohol-use disorder, marijuana, club drugs, and aggressive behaviors.
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differential influences on behaviors, say the researchers. The findings are also lim- ited by the fact that the sample may not be representative of all community- college students, and that a large propor- tion of the sample was nonwhite.
“While we don’t fully understand the relationship between music preferences and behavioral outcomes,” says Meng- Jinn, “our study shows that young people may be influenced by frequent exposure to music lyrics that make positive refer- ences to substance use and violence.”
F F F Chen M-J, Miller BA, Grube JW, et al.: Music, sub- stance use, and aggression. J Stud Alcohol 2006; 67(3):373-381. E-mail: mengjinn@prev.org.
Influence of Music on Youth Behaviors
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