Music Listening as a Strategy for Managing COVID-19 Stress in First-Year University Students

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic brought rapid changes to travel, learning environments, work conditions, and social support, which caused stress for many University students. Research with young people has revealed music listening to be among their most effective strategies for coping with stress. As such, this survey of 402 first-year Australian University students (73.9% female, Mage = 19.6; 75% domestic and 25% international) examined the effectiveness of music listening during COVID-19 compared with other stress management strategies, whether music listening for stress management was related to well-being, and whether differences emerged between domestic and international students. We also asked participants to nominate a song that helped them to cope with COVID-19 stress and analyzed its features. Music listening was among the most effective stress coping strategies, and was as effective as exercise, sleep, and changing location. Effectiveness of music listening as a coping strategy was related to better well-being but not to level of COVID-19 related stress. Although international students experienced higher levels of COVID-19 stress than domestic students, well-being was comparable in the two cohorts. Nominated songs tended to be negative in valence and moderate in energy. No correlations were found between any self-report measure and the valence and energy of nominated coping songs. These findings suggest that although domestic and international students experienced different levels of stress resulting from COVID-19, music listening remained an effective strategy for both cohorts, regardless of the type of music they used for coping.

Music in Quarantine: Connections Between Changes in Lifestyle, Psychological States, and Musical Behaviors During COVID-19 Pandemic

“…In addition, a stronger correlation between SLC and "moderate emotion" during SiP than before SiP suggests a general increase in the need for music as a support tool to deal with the pandemic-induced stress. This agrees with the recently reported positive role of music listening for emotion regulation and venting negative emotion during the pandemic (Herrero et al, 2020;Carlson et al, 2021;Ferreri et al, 2021;Granot et al, 2021;Krause et al, 2021;Mak et al, 2021;Martín et al, 2021;Martínez-Castilla et al, 2021;Ribeiro et al, 2021b;Vidas et al, 2021;Ziv and Hollander-Shabtai, 2021).…”

“…For example, music listening time has typically increased during the pandemic (Cabedo-Mas et al, 2021;Carlson et al, 2021;Fink et al, 2021;Hurwitz and Krumhansl, 2021). The increase may be related to another common finding that people listen to music more frequently to cope with stress, regulate moods and emotions, and connect with others during the pandemic than under usual circumstances (Cabedo-Mas et al, 2021;Fink et al, 2021;Granot et al, 2021;Henry et al, 2021;Krause et al, 2021;Ribeiro et al, 2021b;Vidas et al, 2021;Ziv and Hollander-Shabtai, 2021). Remarkably, there are similar observations worldwide, highlighting that music not only serves such functions but is also one of the most common methods for this purpose during the pandemic.…”

The effects of emotionally congruent sad music listening in young adults high in rumination

“…Experience sampling and questionnaire studies both suggest that music is often used as a way to regulate negative emotions (Juslin & Laukka, 2004;Randall & Rickard, 2016;Thayer, Newman, & McClain, 1994;Vidas et al, 2020). During such episodes, a preference for music that expresses the experienced emotion may also be present (Chen, Zhou, & Bryant, 2007;Hunter, Schellenberg, & Griffith, 2011;Taylor & Friedman, 2015;cf.…”

Dingle & Han 2021 The Effect of COVID-19 on Australian University Students' Mental Health

“…Furthermore, students who actively used a range of coping strategies tended to report better mental health. Students reported that the most effective strategies were music listening (see Vidas, Larwood, Nelson & Dingle, 2021), exercise (see Babaeer, Stylianou, Leveritt, & Gomersall, 2021), changing location, rest or sleep, and calling, talking, being with someone. Not all strategies were related to scores on mental health outcomes.…”