Musical diaries: an investigation of preferred music listening by young people with mental illness in various contexts and conditions

© 2013 Dr. Carmen Cheong-ClinchThis research is an investigation of the preferred music listening engagement by young people with mental health difficulties and illness in various contexts and conditions - in everyday life, including music therapy during a hospital admission in an acute adolescent psychiatric inpatient facility. It is an investigation in response to the growing body of knowledge about individuals, who use music and media technology, in relation to their well-being. Previous studies have investigated the regulatory benefits of music listening in relation to modern media technology (Batt-Rawden, DeNora & Ruud, 2005; Saarikallio & Erkkila, 2007; Skanland, 2010), and have focused on healthy adolescents and adults, and adults with chronic illness. However, there has not been a study about the preferred music engagement of young people with mental health difficulties and illness. This investigation was designed as a grounded theory study where 12 young people with mental health difficulties and illness, while admitted in an acute adolescent psychiatric inpatient facility were theoretically sampled to participate in research interviews. Theoretical sampling, the process of simultaneous data collection and analysis, central to the grounded theory research design and method, ensured the development of the concepts and theory emerged and were grounded in the young people’s descriptions of their preferred music listening, in various contexts and conditions in their everyday life, including music therapy during their hospital admission. The findings revealed that the young people’s engagement with music was centrally related to their emotions, in particular they listened to music to identify with and manage their emotions on an everyday basis. This was understood in context of the well-documented relationship young people have with their music (e.g., Arnett, 1995; Laiho, 2004; Larson, 1995; McFerran, 2010a; North, Hargreaves & O’Neill, 2000; Sloboda & O’Neill, 2001). The findings provide a theoretical understanding of the ways in which these 12 young people described and attributed meaning and significance to their music listening. In particular, it revealed the young people’s fervent belief and perception in the transformative power of their music engagement to manage their increasing mental health difficulties. The findings of the study also showed that the impact of the young people’s music listening varied according to their awareness of it, and fluctuated because of the complexity and unpredictability of their mental health difficulties and illness. This aligns with the perspectives that young people’s developmental ages and/or the types of mental illness diagnoses are likely to determine their emotions and regulatory processes in relation to their music engagement. As part of a grounded theory investigation, the young people’s preferred music listening engagement in music therapy during a hospital admission was also examined. The findings revealed that preferred music was a familiar medium and means for young people to engage and experience their emotions in music therapy during an admission in an acute adolescent psychiatric inpatient facility. Directly engaging with their preferred music in music therapy was a way to facilitate an awareness and intentionality to increase agency in their music uses as a coping resource. The therapeutic space of shared and preferred music listening is of particular significance at a time when current mental health strategies promote developmentally appropriate and affect-focused engagement for young people to participate in their own mental health care and recovery