People across cultures often use music to evoke positive emotions and moods. Yet, some people tend to employ maladaptive strategies such as rumination, avoidant coping, or social isolation when they listen to music. The present research investigated how strongly maladaptive musical engagement is linked with depression and wellbeing in a sample of 1415 Indians (17–65 years) across four cities and two countries. Participants completed a battery of assessments on trait affect, depression, adaptive and maladaptive musical engagement strategies, music preferences, and music skills. 1329 participants were included for analysis. All nine symptoms ( r = .16, to .30) and the sum score of depression ( r = .39), as well as trait negative affect ( r = .36) were correlated with maladaptive music engagement. Six of the symptoms of depression were significant predictors of maladaptive music engagement. Among those, suicidal ideation, worthlessness, and fatigue were the most important. Maladaptive music engagement increased the odds of experiencing all the depression symptoms ( OR = 1.04 to 1.14). Trait positive affect ( r = .29) and having music as a hobby ( r = .22) correlated with adaptive music engagement. Musicians who had been playing an instrument for six years and above had lower levels of maladaptive music engagement ( d = .84). Furthermore, the results show that depression symptoms might have a bidirectional relationship with maladaptive music engagement, with suicidal thoughts being the most important symptom. The current study also validated the Healthy-Unhealthy Music Scale (HUMS; Saarikallio et al., 2015 ) in India and provides a cut-off score based on the sensitivity (.86) and specificity (.66) in identifying people at risk for depression. Overall, the results reveal that socio-demographic factors (age, gender, relationship status, occupation status, geographical location), psychological factors (trait affect, depressive symptoms), and music skills play an important role in engaging with music.
People across cultures often use music to evoke positive emotions and moods. Yet, some people have a tendency to engage in maladaptive music listening strategies such as rumination or social isolation. This maladaptive musical engagement style is linked with depression and poorer wellbeing. The present research investigated the association between music engagement strategies, symptoms of depression, trait affect, and musical expertise and listening habits in a sample of 1,415 Indian adults (17- 65 years old) across four cities and two countries. Participants completed a battery of assessments on trait affect, depression, and musical engagement and preferences. Adaptive music engagement was measured with the healthy music subscale (HM) and maladaptive music engagement was measured with the unhealthy music subscale (UHM) of the healthy-unhealthy music scale (Saarikallio et al., 2015). All nine symptoms of depression were correlated (r=.16, to .30) with UHM and engagement with UHM increased the risk of experiencing depression with mild (Odds ratios =.05 to 10), moderate (Odds ratios =.05 to.16), and severe symptomatology (Odds ratios =.05 to 17). Trait negative affect, musical expertise, and age, but not music preferences, had a strong link with UHM. Furthermore, participants with music skills engaged in HM more frequently. Taken together, the study validated a strong association between maladaptive music use and symptoms of depression in a non-Western sample, which can be useful in detecting both depression by a non-clinical phenomenon and treating depression with the aid of music-related interventions
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