Development and validation of the Healthy-Unhealthy Music Scale

Background Music is an integral part of life in youth, and although it has been acknowledged that musical behavior reflects broader psychosocial aspects of adolescent behavior, no measurement instruments have been specifically designed for assessing musical engagement as an indicator of adolescent wellbeing and/or symptomatology. This study was conducted in order to develop and validate a scale for assessing musical engagement as an indicator of proneness for depression in youth. Method Items were developed based on the literature and a prior grounded theory analysis and three surveys (N = 54, N = 187, N = 211) were conducted to select, refine, test, and validate the items. Scale structure was investigated through interitem correlations, exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses (EFA, CFA), and concurrent validity was tested with correlations to depression and wellbeing. Results The final Healthy-Unhealthy Music Scale (HUMS) consists of 13 items that are divided into Healthy and Unhealthy subscales. Cronbach's alpha coefficients were .78 for Healthy and .83 for Unhealthy. The concurrent validity of the HUMS was confirmed through correlations to wellbeing, happiness and school satisfaction on one hand and depression, rumination, and stress on the other. Conclusions The HUMS is as a promising instrument for screening musical engagement that is indicative of proneness for depression in youth.

[1]  Tom T Bogt,et al.  Music Taste Groups and Problem Behavior , 2007, Journal of youth and adolescence.

[2]  Nikki S. Rickard,et al.  Emotion regulation strategy mediates both positive and negative relationships between music uses and well-being , 2014 .

[3]  J. Arnett,et al.  Adolescents' uses of media for self-socialization , 1995 .

[4]  Suvi Saarikallio,et al.  Music in Mood Regulation: Initial Scale Development , 2008 .

[5]  Michael A. Currie,et al.  Doing Anger Differently: two controlled trials of percussion group psychotherapy for adolescent reactive aggression. , 2012, Journal of adolescence.

[6]  Patrick Gaudreau,et al.  Music listening and mental health: Variations on internalizing psychopathology. , 2012 .

[7]  J Manning,et al.  Music Therapy , 1959 .

[8]  J. Pickens,et al.  Music shifts frontal EEG in depressed adolescents. , 1998, Adolescence.

[9]  K. Harding,et al.  Psychosocial outcomes of active singing interventions for therapeutic purposes: a systematic review of the literature , 2012 .

[10]  Jaakko Erkkilä,et al.  The role of music in adolescents' mood regulation , 2007 .

[11]  C. Pelletier.  The effect of music on decreasing arousal due to stress: a meta-analysis. , 2004, Journal of music therapy.

[12]  Moshe Bensimon,et al.  Music misuse: A review of the personal and collective roles of “problem music” , 2014 .

[13]  Craig A Anderson,et al.  Exposure to violent media: the effects of songs with violent lyrics on aggressive thoughts and feelings. , 2003, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[14]  Dave Miranda,et al.  Music listening, coping, peer affiliation and depression in adolescence , 2009 .

[15]  C. Keyes,et al.  The Subjective Well-Being of America's Youth: Toward a Comprehensive Assessment. , 2006 .

[16]  Karl G. Jöreskog,et al.  Lisrel 8: User's Reference Guide , 1997 .

[17]  R. Kessler,et al.  Short screening scales to monitor population prevalences and trends in non-specific psychological distress , 2002, Psychological Medicine.

[18]  M. Helsing.  Everyday music listening: The importance of individual and situational factors for musical emotions and stress reduction , 2012 .

[19]  J. Edwards.  A music and health perspective on music's perceived “goodness” , 2011 .

[20]  A. Maratos,et al.  Music therapy for depression. , 2008, The Cochrane database of systematic reviews.

[21]  M. Tervaniemi,et al.  Individual music therapy for depression: randomised controlled trial , 2011, British Journal of Psychiatry.

[22]  J. Edwards,et al.  Listening to sad music in adverse situations: How music selection strategies relate to self-regulatory goals, listening effects, and mood enhancement , 2015 .

[23]  Daniel J. Levitin,et al.  The rewards of music listening: Response and physiological connectivity of the mesolimbic system , 2005, NeuroImage.

[24]  M. Browne,et al.  Alternative Ways of Assessing Model Fit , 1992 .

[25]  Martine Villeneuve,et al.  Heavy Metal Music and Adolescent Suicidal Risk , 2001 .

[26]  E. F. Brown,et al.  Adolescents and their music. Insights into the health of adolescents. , 1989, JAMA.

[27]  Suvi Saarikallio,et al.  A Critical Interpretive Synthesis of the Literature Linking Music and Adolescent Mental Health , 2016 .

[28]  Emery Schubert,et al.  Adaptive and maladaptive attraction to negative emotions in music , 2013 .

[29]  G. Andrews,et al.  Interpreting scores on the Kessler Psychological Distress Scale (K10) , 2001, Australian and New Zealand journal of public health.

[30]  C. Keyes,et al.  The mental health continuum: from languishing to flourishing in life. , 2002, Journal of health and social behavior.

[31]  J. Edwards,et al.  Exploring a rationale for choosing to listen to sad music when feeling sad , 2013 .

[32]  Raymond MacDonald,et al.  Music, Health, and Wellbeing , 2012 .

[33]  Jacob Cohen.  Statistical Power Analysis for the Behavioral Sciences , 1969, The SAGE Encyclopedia of Research Design.

[34]  J. Gilmore,et al.  283. Cytokine regulation of apoptosis in fetal substantia nigra cultures , 1996, Biological Psychiatry.

[35]  J. Sloboda,et al.  Handbook of Music and Emotion: Theory, Research, Applications , 2011 .

[36]  Suvi Saarikallio,et al.  Depending on music to feel better: Being conscious of responsibility when appropriating the power of music , 2014 .

[37]  J. Ket,et al.  Music therapy for depression. , 2017, The Cochrane database of systematic reviews.

[38]  Policy Statement — Impact of Music , Music Lyrics , and Music Videos on Children and Youth , 2009 .

[39]  P. Bentler,et al.  Cutoff criteria for fit indexes in covariance structure analysis : Conventional criteria versus new alternatives , 1999 .

[40]  P. Trapnell,et al.  Private self-consciousness and the five-factor model of personality: distinguishing rumination from reflection. , 1999, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[41]  Gerben J Westerhof,et al.  Evaluating the psychometric properties of the Mental Health Continuum-Short Form (MHC-SF). , 2011, Journal of clinical psychology.

[42]  Barbara L. Wheeler,et al.  Music, Health, and Wellbeing , 2016 .