The Effects of Music on Teens

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Music plays an important role in the socialization of children and adolescents.1–3 Listening to popular music is considered by society to be a part of growing up.2 Music provides entertainment and distraction from problems and serves as a way to relieve tension and boredom. Some studies have reported that adolescents use popular music to deal with loneliness and to take control of their emotional status or mood.2,4 Music also can provide a background for romance and serve as the basis for establishing relationships in diverse settings.2 Adolescents use music in their process of identity formation,4–11 and their music preference provides them a means to achieve group identity and integration into the youth culture.5,7–9,12,13 Some authors have suggested that popular music provides adolescents with the means to resolve unconscious conflicts related to their particular developmental stage2,7,12,14 and that their music preference might reflect the level of turmoil of this stage.14–17 Adolescents' choice of music and their reactions to and interpretations of it vary with age, culture, and ethnicity.2,13,14,18–25 Research has shown that there also is a difference in these variables between the genders.25 Female adolescents are more likely than male adolescents to use music to reflect their emotional state, in particular when feeling lonely or “down.”2,26,27 Male adolescents, on the other hand, are more likely to use music as a stimulant, as a way to “boost” their energy level, or to create a more positive image of themselves.2,4,26 To understand the importance of music in the life of adolescents, a survey performed in the early 1990s of 2760 American adolescents aged 14 through 16 years revealed that they listened to music an average of 40 hours per week.28 In another study in 2000, North et al4 found that a sample of 2465 adolescents in England reported listening to
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