Secrets in the bedroom: Adolescents' private use of media

Empiria, 2024

This study explores functions of music listening in relation to emotion regulation and identity development in mid-adolescence. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 17 adolescents (15-16 years old), using a personally selected piece of music as a starting point. Analysis of the interviews focused on descriptions of emotional and identity related functions of their self-chosen music, complexity level of meaning making in participants' autobiographical narratives that emerged in relation to the music they had chosen, and the relation between functions and meaning making level. The results revealed two types of engagement with music entailing a connection between emotional and identity-related functions. The first type involves a more basic form of interaction which is focused on influencing one's mood, and related to feelings of identification with the lively rhythm of the upbeat music they had selected. The second C. LOUREIRO, K. VAN DER MEULEN Y ...

Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 1989

The decline in TV viewing and increase in music listening associated with the onset of adolescence is examined in terms of the changing social ecology of adolescents" daily lives. Fifth to 9th graders provided self-reports on random moments in their experience over one week. These data suggest that less frequent TV watching by adolescents, as compared to preadolescents, is attributable to a decrease in TV watching done with the family, particularly on weekend mornings and evenings. Adolescents who do watch more TV are those who spend more time with the family overall. In contrast, adolescents who frequently listen to music are those who spend more time with friends. It is argued that the partial shift from television to music during adolescence represents a shift from a medium that reinforces parental values to one that reinforces peer values and speaks to adolescent developmental tasks.

2014

Supported by research funds 2008–2011 and co-financed by a grant from Iceland,

This dissertation main aim is to examine the effects of music videos and lyrics on the emotional development of adolescent aged 13 to 18 years old with particular focus being on three main aspects which contribute to emotional development. The three main aspect of emotional development which will be explored in this dissertation are Aggressive Behaviour, Sexualisation and Body Image. This dissertation will also focus on the impact of different music genres on the emotional development of adolescents aged 13 to 18 year olds within the themes of Aggressive Behaviour, Sexualisation and Body Image. The different music genres which will be examined throughout are Heavy Metal, Hip Hop/Rap, Rock and Popular music.

The current population of young adults known as the Millennial Generation is the first generation in the United States who have always had access to listening to music via portable music players. This study was designed to explore and understand how listening to music in this mode may influence, change and shape their internal worlds, in ways which may be of value to those psychotherapists who work with young adults.

This study aimed at determining whether adolescents and young adults use music as an agent of consolation when dealing with daily sorrow and stress. We furthermore tested whether three aspects of music listening, i.e., the music itself, its lyrics, and experiences of closeness to artists and fans, were experienced as comforting. Third, we explored whether consolation through music listening was related to music use and psychological problems. Overall, 1,040 respondents, age 13-30 years (M = 20.3, 70.7% female), responded to items measuring listening hours, music importance, music preferences, positive and negative affects elicited by music (PANAS), internalizing and externalizing problems, and consolation through music. Slightly over 69% reported that they (definitely) use music as a source of consolation. Furthermore, female respondents and respondents with higher levels of anxiousness/depression and lower levels of aggression sought consolation by music more often. The same result emerged for respondents with a preference for chart pop music, for those who found music important, and for those with stronger emotional reactions to music. Music's consoling effects were reported as resulting particularly from the sound and texture of the music itself, from attribution of personal meaning to music's lyrics, and, to a lesser extent, from perceptions of closeness to artists and other listeners.

Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 1995

This is an overview of the special issue, "Adolescents Uses of Media." The articles in the special issue are described as taking the uses and gratifications approach, which emphasizes that people make choices about the media they consume and that people differ in their interpretations of media content. The common goal of the articles is to integrate this approach with developmental perspectives on adolescence. Common themes include adolescents as active media users, the developmental context of adolescence, the cultural context of media use, and integrative and innovative methodological approaches.

1991

Popular Media and the Teenage Sexual Agenda This qualitative study examines how teernigers react to and interpret certain popular media messages. The research goal was to explore the relationship between content containing various sexual messages and teenagers' responses to 'lose messages, with particular attention to the critical abilities this audience exhibits. Fifty male and female teenagers aged 11 to 15 were individuai:y interviewed during the summer of 1989. Each had been given a videotape to view contaii ing clips from two popular teen-oriented P0-13 movies (Toac= and FOT Keeps) and two then-popular music videos (Madonna's ExpiraSiimutif and Ton Loc's Funky Cool Medina). Respondents also completed a questionnaire surveying the range and quantity of movie or videotape viewing and assessing social and demographic characteristics. A one to two hour interview sought to locate how individuals think about certain sexual problems or situations and how they negotiate the sexual content in the specific video materials we gave them. Only a portion of the results are addressed in this paper. There are considerable differences in how teens react to arid decode music videos compared to movies. It should be noted that in this sample, video media of all sorts were omnipresent. The amount of movie-going, tape viewing and Nintendo-playing is extremely high, and it is clear that the types of movies one watches or music one likes are cultural (and gender) markers. Popular media constitute an important social environment for teenagers, and members of this sample regularly view and talk about movies or television fare with their friends and family. Our interviews underscore the role of music videos as incidental and transitory in these teens' popular media world; they are viewed with a veat deal of detachment and judgement. However, teenagers' responses to movies suggest that form's experiential power draws viewers into a stronger dialogue and richer interpretive process. The "movie diet" of this group was fuelled largely by videotapes which were often viewed repeatedly. Affirming some other research on children and media, we found that material that was well liked was processed with more detail: teenagers were more articulate about and remembered more about content that they preferred. For the most part this group exhibited strong opinions about the movies' content; these movies stimulated affirmation of the teenagers' existing ideas about appropriate sexual behavior. In that sense the embedded sexual messages did not provoke self questioning as much as they provoked self affirmation. Thus, a movie portrayal in which thortion is rejected does not necessarily translate into a viewer's rejection of abortion as an alternative to an unwinted pregnancy. Rather, it acts as a springboard for articulating one's own feelings. Teenagers' interaction with music videos seemed to operate quite differently. These teens interpreted music videos in terms of the artist performing them, his or her other work, the musical genre, and the sorts of people who like that genre. In other words, this popular cultural form is embedded in a set of larger cultural experiences with varied significance. The sexual messages in the videos chosen for discussion were sometimes misunderstood or ignored, sometimes the object of derision or embarrassment They were apparently not as capable of stimulating self awareness as were movies.

Media Psychology, 2008

Abstract: Mood management studies typically have found that adults will select media that enhance positive moods and reduce negative moods. In this study, adolescents diagnosed with major depressive disorder and control adolescents without psychiatric disorders were called on customized cell phones up to 4 times a day and asked about their current mood state and media use for five extended weekends across an 8-week period. Mood effects on subsequent media use, mood during media consumption, and media effects on subsequent mood were examined. Results indicated that adolescents who consumed fun media tended to do so in a way that sustained, rather than enhanced their prior positive mood levels during and after consumption-if they turned to media. Adolescents in more negative moods did not often use media to improve their moods. When they did, boys were more likely than girls to use media that ultimately reduced negative mood levels. Findings are discussed in light of the literature on mood management, adolescence, and depression. Citation: Dillman Carpentier, F. R., Brown, J. D., Bertocci, M., Silk, J. S., Forbes, E. E., & Dahl, R. E. (2008). Sad kids, sad media?: Applying mood management theory to depressed adolescents' use of media. Media Psychology, 11, 143-166.