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Using music to express negativity may lead to poor emotional regulation

Recent findings suggest an association between using music to express negative emotions and maladaptive patterns of emotional regulation, with potential long-term negative effects on mental health.

“This ability to induce emotions makes music listening a potentially powerful means of affect regulation, an important aspect of mental health, and could therefore have clinical applications,” Emily Carlson, a doctoral student at the University of Jyväskylä, Finland, and colleagues wrote. “Indeed, music therapy is currently being used in the treatment of mental health disorders in clinical settings, with some evidence for its effectiveness, though there is a paucity of well-controlled studies to explain the mechanisms by which desired effects take place.”

Researchers evaluated music listening strategies in relation to mental health among 123 individuals with a mean age of 28.8 years. Psychological testing was administered among all study participants, while neural responses to music were measured in the medial prefrontal cortex of 56 participants.

Overall, 68 participants identified as nonmusicians, 38 identified as amateur musicians and 20 identified as professional musicians.

Using music to express negative emotions, referred to as discharge by researchers, was associated with increased anxiety and neuroticism among all participants, particularly males.

Males with high discharge exhibited decreased activity in the medial prefrontal cortex during music listening, compared with individuals using less discharge.

Females who frequently used music to distract from negative emotions, referred to as diversion by researchers, exhibited higher medial prefrontal cortex activity than females with lower use of diversion.

“This study has shown the possibility that an individual’s use of music, particularly in response to negative affect, may relate to his or her mental health, as evidenced by correlations between listening tendencies as mental health outcomes,” the researchers wrote. “These results suggest discharge may be an ineffective or harmful listening strategy in response to negative affect, while solace and diversion may provide more effective mood regulation. This result may encourage music therapists to explore healthy music-based affect regulation with their clients, and to help clients identify ineffective or harmful listening strategies, and to develop and inform active interventions based on these identified cognitive strategies of music listening.” – by Amanda Oldt

Disclosure: The researchers report no relevant financial disclosures.