The relationship between heavy metal and rap music on adolescent turmoil: real or artifact?

Adolescence, Fall, 1994 by Kevin J. Took, David S. Weiss

TABLE 1

Significant Variables Befores and After Balancing (Heavy Metal and Rap vs.
Other)

                                              Significant Variables
Adolescent Questionnaire
                                             Unbalanced(*)    Balanced

Current grades below average                  p=.03            p=.04

Suspended or expelled from
junior high/high school                       p=.04

Illict Drug Use                               p=.05

Sexually active                               p=.03

Counseling for drugs/alcohol                  p=.02

Counseling for family problems                p=.05(**)

Patental Questionnaire
(about adolescents)

Below average elementary
school grades                                 p=.009           p=.04

Suspended or expelled from
elementary school                             p=.05

Counseling in elementary
school for school problems                    p=.004           p=.002

Below average current grades                  p=.05            p=.04

Suspended or expelled from
junior high/high school                       p=.02

Alcohol use                                   p=.04

History of arrest                             p=.02

* = Unbalanced (more males in heavy metal/rap group)
** = Only variable with a significantly greater number in the Other group

Because of the preponderance of males in the HM/R group, it was decided to balance the groups and compare them again. The balancing was performed using a random removal of females from the Other group. The HM/R group still had 48 subjects (64% male, 36% female), and the Other group then contained 25 subjects (60% male, 40% female). There still were no significant differences in age or race between the two groups.

When the other variables were then compared, far fewer differences were found between the balanced groups. On the adolescents' questionnaire there was only one significant (p [is less than or equal to] .05) variable, below average current grades (46% HM/R, 21% Other). On the parents' questionnaire about their adolescents, the number of significant (p [is less than or equal to] .05) variables drops from seven to three: Below average elementary school grades (19% HM/R, 0% Other), counseling in elementary school for school problems (94% HM/R, 25% Other, still no difference in actual number of subjects in counseling), and below average current grades (59% HM/R, 32% Other). Again, there were no significant differences on the parents' questionnaire about the parents themselves.

CONCLUSIONS

One of the difficulties with this study is that participation was based on hospital or clinic attendance; thus the sample is prone to be in more turmoil. Yet one of the major points of the study is that there is less association of heavy metal and rap music with adolescent turmoil than was previously suspected and, if anything, one would expect this population to be more influenced by the negative messages of this type of music. Another one of the limits of the study is that it is based on self-report. As a check on reliability, both parents and adolescents were asked the same questions about the adolescents' current functioning. Although there is some variation in the exact type of difficulties the adolescents were reported to be experiencing, there is a surprising and reassuring consistency between the two sources. (However, when the parents were asked about themselves, there may have been more hesitancy to disclose information.)