The purpose of this study was to investigate how often adolescents listen to music in situations in which they are experiencing different emotions and how effective they find music to be in helping them feel more positively in these different emotionally evocative situations. This study also sought to identify individual differences in how often adolescents listen to music and how effective they find music in helping them feel better based on individual personality characteristics, involvement with music, and time spent listening to music.

The literature review provides support for the importance of listening to music in the lives of adolescents as a means of identity formation, connecting with peers, and regulating emotional states. Research on various music therapy approaches indicates positive outcomes with individuals struggling with anxiety and depression. There is substantial support for music's ability to decrease physiological arousal and improve sleep quality. Research on music and personality suggests that individuals' music preferences indicate a great deal about their personality characteristics and that adolescents use music preferences of others to infer information about their personalities.

My method employed a survey that was administered to participants 18 to 20 years old to inventory their music listening habits across different emotionally evocative situations. Participants also completed a personality measure and two scales assessing their musical involvement and the amount of time they spend listening to music each week.

The results support prior research indicating that adolescents spend a considerable amount of time listening to music. It was found that adolescents believe that listening to music is more effective in situations where they are feeling positively rather than situations where they are feeling negatively. In addition, adolescents with higher scores of neuroticism found music to be more effective in helping them feel positively in situations with others when they were already feeling positively and negatively and in situations where they were alone and already feeling positively than adolescents with lower scores of neuroticism.