Study addiction among musicians: Measurement, and relationship with personality, social anxiety, performance, and psychosocial functioning

Abstract

Adverse health-related consequences of perfectionistic over-involvement in work are well-documented among professional musicians. The aim of this study was to investigate a recently developed concept of “study addiction” among students of music academies. Study addiction has been defined within the framework of theory and research on work addiction as a potential behavioral addiction. A cross-sectional correlational study was conducted among 132 students of music academies in Poland. The Bergen Study Addiction Scale (BStAS), reflecting seven core addiction symptoms related to studying, was employed together with commonly used measures of personality and well-being. A one-factor solution had an acceptable fit with the data in the sample of music academies’ students. Multiple hierarchical regression analyses showed that study addiction was related to low extraversion and high social anxiety. Study addiction was related to specific aspects of studying (longer learning time, lower academic performance) and to indicators of decreased well-being (impaired general health, decreased quality of life and sleep quality, higher perceived stress). As expected, study addiction was positively related to learning engagement. However, while the latter was associated positively with psychosocial functioning indicators, study addiction was related negatively to these variables. Furthermore, social anxiety was found to be a mediator between emotional stability/extraversion and study addiction. Moderation analyses revealed that social anxiety was related to a lower grade point average (GPA) only for these students who were high on study addiction. Using a cut-off score based on a polythetic approach showed that 16% of students were addicted to studying. The results suggest that among students at music academies, study addiction can be validly measured and that it has similar potential antecedents and consequences to that in the general population of students. Considering the estimate of study addiction prevalence in this group, further systematic studies among musicians are highly warranted.

Cross-cultural pilot study on the relationship between study addiction and narcissism among undergraduate students in Poland and India

“…Moreover, differentiation of self-focus achievement orientation and other focus orientation among study addicts could shed more light on the nuanced motivations behind their unduly strong engagement in studying. The correlation between gender and study addiction was very close to zero in India, which is incongruent with all of the previous studies in Poland and Norway (Andreassen et al, 2013;Atroszko, 2015;Atroszko et al, 2016a, b;Lawendowski et al, 2019). Also, the relationship of learning engagement with study addiction was sig-nificantly weaker in India than in Poland.…”

“…In this study we used a 7-point Likert-type response scale, ranging from 1 (I am not at all engaged) to 7 (I am completely engaged). The Polish version of the scale showed good validity in the previous research (Atroszko, 2015;Atroszko et al, 2015;Atroszko et al, 2019b;Lawendowski et al, 2019).…”

“…The Likert-type response scale ranged from 1 (never) to 5 (always). The scale has demonstrated good construct validity and reliability in previous studies (Atroszko, 2015;Atroszko et al, 2015Atroszko et al, , 2016aAtroszko et al, 2019b;Lawendowski et al, 2019). In the present study, single-factor structure was confirmed in the Polish sample (MLR estimator, χ 2 (14) = 90.19, p < .001, RMSEA = .070, 90% CI RMSEA = .056-.084, CFI = .945, SRMR = .031) as well as in Indian sample (MLR estimator, error terms of items 1 and 2 cor-related, χ 2 (13) = 23.35, p = .038, RMSEA = .052, 90% CI RMSEA = .012-.086, CFI = .927, SRMR = .046).…”

“…Moreover, previous studies (Atroszko, 2015; showed a relationship between study addiction and basic features of both agentic and antagonistic narcissism forms: i) the need for achievement, which may be understood as an ego-boosting striving for uniqueness (see Schwartz, 2012;Back et al, 2013), and ii) competitiveness component of Type A personality, which may be understood as an ego-protecting striving for supremacy. Congruently, studies showed a consistent link between study addiction and higher examination stress as well as social anxiety in diverse samples of students (Atroszko, 2015;Atroszko, Wróbel, Bereznowski, & Lawendowski, 2019b;Lawendowski et al, 2019). Study addiction was conceptualized as an ineffective coping mechanism typical for individuals who are perfectionists, need to demonstrate their competencies as well as who obsessively try to avoid making any mistakes in fear of losing respect and admiration of other people, and the initial data support such assumptions (see Atroszko, 2015Atroszko, , 2019a.…”

“…For example, the known prevalence rates based on a polythetic cut-off score of the Bergen Work Addiction Scale (which in the absence of the gold standard can be considered the most theoretically sound and empirically valid available cut-off) suggest 6.6% addicted in Denmark, 8.3% in a nationally representative sample in Norway, and 16.8% in Poland (Andreassen et al, 2014;Atroszko, Pallesen, Griffiths, & Andreassen, 2017;Lichtenstein, Malkenes, Sibbersen, & Hinze, 2019). The analogous cut-off score based on the Bergen Study Addiction Scale showed that the prevalence rate of study addiction in an online sample in Norway was 9.7%, and in convenience samples of students in Poland, rates varied from 6.4% in samples collected during classes at university to 14.2% in samples collected online (Atroszko, 2015), and 16.0% among students of music academies (Lawendowski, Bereznowski, Wróbel, Kierzkowski, & Atroszko, 2019). These differences in prevalence rates may be closely related to cultural factors and their interaction with socioeconomic conditions of particular countries, for example, an interaction of work ethic, consumer values and economic pressures (see Atroszko et al, 2019a).…”