English and American Adolescents' Reasons for Listening to Music

This study investigated the degree to which English and American adolescents report similar reasons for listening to music. A questionnaire was completed by 245 participants (mean age = 15 27 years), on which they indicated how much each of 11 potential reasons for listening to music applied to them. Factor analysis revealed three factors which accounted for 60.3% of the variance in responses. These factors were interpreted as listening to music for reasons of "selfactualisation", to "fulfil emotional needs", and to "fulfil social needs". Whilst analysis of the factor scores did reveal some individual differences between responses of participants in each culture, overall there were no significant multivariate or univariate main effects of nationality. This suggests that the English and American adolescents' reasons for listening to music may similarly be explained by the same factors.

[1]  E. Rubinstein.  Television and Social Behavior; Reports and Papers, Volume IV: Television in Day-to-Day Life: Patterns of Use. , 1972 .

[2]  Dolf Zillmann,et al.  Musical taste in adolescence. , 1997 .

[3]  Michael Fitzgerald,et al.  LEISURE ACTIVITIES OF ADOLESCENT SCHOOLCHILDREN , 1995 .

[4]  Kenneth L. Campbell,et al.  American Adolescents and Music Videos: Why Do They Watch? , 1986 .

[5]  W. Gantz,et al.  Gratifications and expectations associated with Pop music among adolescents , 1978 .

[6]  J. Langlois,et al.  Mothers, fathers, and peers as socialization agents of sex-typed play behaviors in young children. , 1980 .

[7]  Reed W. Larson,et al.  Social context and the subjective experience of different types of rock music , 1995 .

[8]  Adrian C. North,et al.  The importance of music to adolescents. , 2000, The British journal of educational psychology.

[9]  W. A. Scott,et al.  Adjustment of Adolescents: Cross-Cultural Similarities and Differences , 1998 .

[10]  James Lull,et al.  The Adolescent Audience for Music Videos and Why They Watch. , 1986 .

[11]  P. Heaven.  Contemporary Adolescence: A Social Psychological Approach , 1994 .

[12]  Klaus-Ernst Behne,et al.  The development of "Musikerleben" in adolescence: How and why young people listen to music. , 1997 .

[13]  C. H. Hansen,et al.  How rock music videos can change what is seen when boy meets girl: Priming stereotypic appraisal of social interactions , 1988 .

[14]  R. Larson,et al.  Daily companionship in late childhood and early adolescence: changing developmental contexts. , 1991, Child development.

[15]  D. Zillmann,et al.  Exploring the Relation between Personality and the Appreciation of Rock Music , 1996, Psychological reports.

[16]  Keith Roe,et al.  SWEDISH YOUTH AND MUSIC , 1985 .

[17]  J. Cotterell.  Social Networks and Social Influences in Adolescence , 1996 .

[18]  Adrian C. North,et al.  The social psychology of music. , 1997 .