Improving Well-Being Through Music

Written by Seren Mason

How do you feel when listening to music? Your favourite song starts to play and suddenly you’re in another world. Whether you enjoy listening to music on your own or going to gigs, engaging with music has power over our emotions and has the ability to completely change our mood. What’s more, recent psychological studies show that music may actually have a ‘healing power’ that can affect our well-being.

Papinczak, Dingle, Stoyanov, Hides and Zelenko (2015) carried out a study to investigate the relationship between wellbeing and music listening habits in young people. The researchers initially employed a qualitative analysis to study this relationship, and specifically used a focus group with 11 participants aged 15-25. The focus group revealed four ways in which listening to music links with well-being: relationship building, modifying emotions, modifying cognitions, and emotional immersion. These four linking variables were then used to create a quantitative questionnaire, which was tested on a new sample of 107 young people (aged 17-25).


By operationalising these variables into a quantitative study, the researchers were able to study the relationship between the amount of music listened to (measured by hours listened per week) and each of the four linking variables. What they found was that the amount of music listened to was positively associated with all four variables (relationship building, modifying cognitions, modifying emotions and immersing in emotions). Consequently, the researchers suggest that young people regularly listen to music to strategically enhance their sense of well-being.

So, at a glance, this study appears to support the notion that listening to music is an effective strategy for maintaining and promoting well-being. Indeed, 95% of the participants themselves agreed that listening to music helped their well-being. However, there are a couple of key limitations we have to consider before generalising these findings. Firstly, the modest sample size and the correlational nature of the quantitative study limit the conclusions that can be made. Future studies could utilise experimental designs to determine causal and directional evidence for these associations. Secondly, although Papinczack et al. create a strong rationale for focusing on young people, it does prevent us generalising the findings outside of this population.


Overall, despite the correlational nature of these findings, Papinczak et al. highlight the relationship between music and well-being in young people. This is important as the period between the ages of 15-25 is particularly sensitive to the emergence of mental health problems, which may be prevented, or indeed treated using music-based interventions. Dependent on future studies that elucidate the causal relationship between music and well-being, we could well see schools and educational programmes integrate engagement with music as an affordable and accessible method to bolster well-being amongst young people.

References  

Papinczak, Z. E., Dingle, G. A., Stoyanov, S. R., Hides, L., & Zelenko, O. (2015). Young people's uses of music for well-being. Journal of Youth Studies, 18(9), 1119-1134.