Personality,musicality and mental health in South Asian classical musicians

Music listening is a permanent source of enjoyment and entertainment for adolescents. The increase in music listening coincides with adolescents‘ normative passage from childhood to adulthood- a transition characterized by specific developmental tasks and psychosocial challenges (Lerner & Stenberg, 2004). Schwartz & Fouts (2003) summarize three processes by which adolescents can regulate their emotions with music listening. These include (1) distraction from unwanted moods (2) solace and validation of their personal issues, and (3) catharsis in relation to negative emotions. Generally people who use music to cope are engaging in avoidance coping. People listen music as a framework to cope with their existing circumstances and also to build up a mental framework, which could be beneficial for their future. This study was conducted with four different groups of 285 total people of Varanasi and Almora District of India. The tools used in the study were Coping by Music listening questionnaire, the Brief COPE, and the Neuroticism subscale of the NEO-FFI. It was found that Neuroticism was significantly correlated with engaging in coping more often, adolescents were no more likely to use one type of coping, and none of the coping subscales from Brief COPE correlated significantly with musicianship.