Music taste linked to mental health

Lamp, The, Sept, 2008

A new mental health study has identified a link between musical preferences and different types of mental illness.

The report, published in last month's Australasian Psychiatry journal, found that teens listening to pop music are more likely to be struggling with their sexuality, those into to rap or heavy metal are more likely to be having unprotected sex and drink-driving, and those who prefer jazz tend to be misfits and loners.

The study of Year 10 students showed significant associations between heavy metal music and suicide ideation, depression, delinquen cy and drug-taking, prompting a call for doctors to include musical tastes as a diagnostic indicator in mental health assessments.

Deliberate self-harm and attempted suicide was also associated with teenagers who listened to trance, techno, heavy metal and medieval music as part of the goth/emo subculture, while those who attended dance parties were much more likely than their peers to be taking drugs.

Some genres of rap music, such as French rap, were linked to more deviant behaviours including theft, violence and drug use, while teens listening to hip-hop were usually less troublesome, the study's author Felicity Baker told the media.

Speaking to the Sydney Morning Herald, Michael Bowden, a child psychiatrist and the head of medical programs at the NSW Institute of Psychiatry was dubious.

'The key to understanding any teenager is to treat them with respect by listening to what they have to say, rather than typecasting them according to the type of music they listen to,' he said.