The Relationship of Listening to Music and Students’

Mental Health among Grade 9 Students

JOSE RIZAL UNIVERSITY

A Research Paper

QUANTITAVE RESEARCH

By:

Delos Reyes, Nysa P.

Falquerabao, Natalie Joy P.

Triviño, Blessie Mae R.

Cortez, Sandara Yssabella J.

Bilbao, James Uriel G.

Malinao, John Cedrick M.

Pedrero, Mark Ysmael V.

Cruz, Leianna Khay F.

Amido, Cezzann Gabrielle N.

Abstract

This research aims to determine the impact of listening to music to the mental health of

young teenagers, especially on the 9th grade students of Jose Rizal University (JRU) Junior

High School Division. There is a growing number of population of people diagnosed with mental

instability, however, music can address this controversial issue.

To study the behavior of the following students, we gather data by conducting online

surveys through Google Forms to the 180 selected Grade 9 students as sample data using the

Stratified Random Sampling. The research location of this study is in Junior High School

Division as it is convenient, reliable and efficient. The researchers have used the survey method

in gathering data from the respondents.

The information gathered shows that there is a Negative Very Weak Correlation between

Time and Mental health. The data manifests the different levels of mental health among the

respondents. The results have also measured the Average Hours of Listening to Music of the

participants in this study.

The data analysis reveals that majority of the students have Moderate Mental Health

Level (MMHL) and few are Low Mental Health Level (LMHL), thus stating there aren’t any

students who are free from such hindrances. The Average Hours of Listening to Music is 1 hour

and 27 minutes means that they invest most of their time listening to music. There is an

inversely proportional relationship between Time and Mental Health which indicates that the two

variables (time and mental health) move in an opposite direction.

Keywords

Mental Health
Music
Mental Illness

Introduction

This study focuses on the relationship between music and mental health among the

students. The researchers approach to identify the different effects of music to one

psychological state especially to the Grade 9 Students of Jose Rizal University. In the future

ahead, those who are also willing to conduct a study similar to ours will be guided along the

process on what gaps are yet to be filled. This research will only associate with mental illness

and behavior that music may help with it like depression, anxiety, anger management or

difficulties and more. We are targeting students who aren’t aware or are still aware that they are

mentally unstable yet they neglect it. We want to give importance and improve the mental health

of the students which will affect their quality of life.

Anywhere you go you can hear music and people use music for relaxation, for them to

forget problems and to reduce different kinds of stress. Listening to music can be entertaining

and it might even make you healthier. Music can be a source of pleasure and contentment, but

there are many other psychological benefits as well. The psychological effects of music can help

lessen your stress. Music can make your mind relax and it energizes the body to be even more

productive.

Many people who are facing problems in remembering things listen to music so that they

can improve their memory. Some people listen to music so that their mind is relaxed to sleep
properly. Music is known to be a relaxation zone, a way to express oneself through it.

Expressing your emotions, to be comforted by its lyrics and many more. A support to those who

are facing difficulties related with day to day activities. In every era of human history and in

every society around the globe, music has allowed people to express their feelings and

communicate with others. More than simply expressing emotions, music can alter them; as

British dramatist William Congreve put it in 1697, "Music has charms to soothe a savage

breast."

Anyone can express their feelings through the lyrics of a song and can spontaneously

correlate to a song based on its significant meaning of the lyrics. Music overwhelms our feelings

and motivate us to be confident. According to the World Journal of Psychiatry, music therapy

can help mood disorders and neurological conditions as effective treatments. We the

researchers are not professionals in neuroscience but here in our topic, we are trying to prove a

point on what is really the relationship of music to students’ mental health.

Music does have a great benefit to each people’s psychological state. Even when they

are at the sky or at the dead sea, music has been a huge company to the people who feel

lonely. It has always been there despite the place, time, and even condition. It is everywhere

and has always been there. Music will never leave anyone out of the blue.

Mental illnesses are health conditions that involve changes in mood and psychological

thinking. Mental illness is associated with problems or stress, work, family, and society.

Depression is one of the mental illnesses that negatively affect what you feel, how you act, and

your way of thinking. Philippines has the highest number of depressed people in Southeast

Asia (Guzman, 2018). According to the National Statistics Office, mental illness is the third most
common form of disability in the country and record shows the high number of cases is among

youth and music can change or lessen that illness.

According to Darlene Oakley’s article on EmpowHER, studies show that music can help

reduce pain and overcome fatigue (Saurman, The Equinox, 2017). In the 21st century, research

suggests there is a connection between music and its effect on various illnesses (Arts

Professional, n.d.) (Roisin O'Connor, 2019). Studies have shown it to slow heart rate, lower

blood pressure and reduce levels of stress hormones (Arts Professional, n.d.) (Roisin O'Connor,

2019). Research conducted in 2005 by the University of Windsor in Canada, meanwhile,

showed that music could improve cognitive function (Arts Professional, n.d.) (Roisin O'Connor,

2019). According to Daniel Levitin, an American-Canadian cognitive psychologist, lots of things

that we do affect our physiology and they have seen evidence now that music can alter brain

chemistry and even the production of cytokines, immunoglobulin A and other components of a

healthy immune system (Thompson, n.d.) (Wang, 2015) (American Psychological Association,

n.d.) (Valerie, 2014) (Saurman, The Equinox, 2017).

According to the recent research from Durham University in the United Kingdom and the

University of Jyvaskyla in Find, said that even sad music can bring comfort to most listeners,

although the study found out that listening to sad music may cause negative feelings or

thoughts for some people, but it is still subjective. Listening to familiar music is best if you want

to concentrate on something but for some people, they tend to listen to unfamiliar music to avoid

jamming to it. For example, classical music is the best choice if you want to focus on something

whether it is school-related or not.

Music makes repetitive tasks enjoyable and pleasurable. It could improve the work of

individuals that do their duties repeatedly on a daily basis. Doing household chores is a good

example of that. Cleaning the house, doing the laundry, washing the dishes and etc. It is indeed
boring doing these chores in a quiet setting even though we do a specific chore on a certain day

of the week. Intentionally, music tries to boost our mood by listening to positive or upbeat kind of

music.

This topic has been chosen because as a student, we can relate to this kind of situation

or issue especially now that we are candidates for promotion and we held a huge responsibility

as an individual and as a group. Most of us are stressed, stressed to the point that may lead to

depression or anxiety which are mental disorders we try to avoid. We also have other

responsibilities at home, factors that may cause mental illness are family conflicts and an

immense amount of pressure from elders and colleagues. Our goal is to lessen the population

or percentage of youth that are diagnosed with mental illness especially the ones who are

diagnosed with severe mental illness. We hypothesized that students who are mentally unstable

listen to music in order for them to cope up and recover from the mental illness they are

currently experiencing.

Methods

The research location of this study is in Junior High School Division. This place was

chosen by the researchers as it is convenient, reliable and efficient. The selected grade 9

students have been chosen as the subject matter is more relevant to them than the lower

grades. The researchers used Descriptive Research Design in this study. The researchers have

also used the survey method in gathering confidential data from the respondents. The

questionnaires were answered online by means of Google forms. The population consists of

grade 9 students from Jose Rizal University in which 180 samples were used as the

representation of the whole population. Stratified Random Sampling was the sampling strategy

of our research in which the population were divided into subgroups or sections that were

sampled respectively.
Results

SOP 1
Table 1 Level of Mental Health
VERBAL
STATEMENTS MEAN INTERPRETATION
I find it difficult to sleep even if I'm worn out. 2.81 MMHL
I tend to outburst or be violent when I'm
angry. 3.26 MMHL
I can't stop thinking about negative things. 2.49 LMHL
I surround myself with people who can't help
me with my problems. 3.37 MMHL
I feel worthless and frustrated when I fail to
accomplish things. 2.53 LMHL
I feel tensed when I'm around unfamiliar
things. 2.53 LMHL
When someone gets mad at me, I can't stop
thinking about it for a whole day. 2.29 LMHL
I belittle and compare myself to other people. 2.56 LMHL
I feel so afraid of being judged by people. 2.36 LMHL
I feel irritated or annoyed out of the blue. 2.82 MMHL
I get fed up with all of these intrusive
thoughts. 2.72 MMHL
I isolate myself when I'm stressed or
anxious. 2.74 MMHL
I decide things without thinking of its
consequences. 3.09 MMHL
I worry of making myself a fool to people. 2.44 LMHL
I find it difficult to calm down after a heated
argument. 2.71 MMHL
I feel so hopeless when solving complicated
problems. 2.84 MMHL
I feel more worried than how I usually do. 2.73 MMHL
I feel mentally relieved after eating so much,
but then I hate myself for doing so. 3.09 MMHL
I force myself to vomit, when I feel like I've
eaten too much food. 3.96 MMHL
I exercise to almost exhaustion to burn
excessive calories I've consumed. 3.03 MMHL
General 2.82 MMHL
Cronbach Alpha: 0.95
RANGE VERBAL INTERPRETATION
1.00 to 2.67 Low Mental Health Level (LMHL)
2.68 to 4.34 Moderate Mental Health Level (MMHL)
4.35 to 5.00 High Mental Health Level (HMHL)

Based on the given table figure above, we can see that the highest mean (3.96) is from “I force

myself to vomit, when I feel like I've eaten too much food.” which indicates that they have a
Moderate Mental Health Level (MMHL), while the lowest mean (2.29) is from “When someone

gets mad at me, I can't stop thinking about it for a whole day.” indicates that they have a Low

Mental Health Level (LMHL). The general mean is 2.82 which is under Moderate Mental Health

Level.

SOP 2
Table 2 Average Hour/s of Listening to Music
Frequenc
  y (f) Class Mark (X) fX
Less than 1 Hour
(Rarely) 76 0.5 38
1 to 2 Hours (Often) 37 1.5 55.5
More than 2 Hours
(Most of the Time) 67 2.5 167.5
  180   261

The Mean is 1.45 or 1 Hour and 27 minutes

In table 2, it shows that 76 respondents listen to music in less than 1 hour, 37 respondents listen

to music in 1 to 2 hours, while 67 respondents listen to music in more than 2 hours. It also

illustrates the approximate mean (1.45) or average time (1 Hour and 27 Minutes) of students

who listen to music.

SOP 3

Table 3 Relationship of Average Hours of Listening to Music and Students’ Mental Health

Correlation r - value Verbal Interpretation

Time and Mental
Health -0.06 Negative Very Weak Relationship

The table above manifests the r-value of Time and Mental Health which is -0.06 which has a

level of Negative Very Weak Relationship based on the range of correlation, thus illustrating that
there is an indirect relationship between Average Hours of Listening to Music and Students’

Mental Health.

Verbal
Questions
Mean Interpretaion
When I listen to music, I'm able to concentrate on the given tasks. 4.02 Always
I engage with people who listen to the same music I listen to. 4.13 Always
I can calm down and think better with music. 4.46 Always
I feel safe, peaceful, and comfortable when listening to music. 4.58 Always
I become lively and energetic while listening to music. 4.5 Always
I am able to express my emotions through playing instruments and/or Always
writing lyrics to a song. 4.02
I listen to music to alter my current mood. 4.46 Always
I listen to music to match my current mood. 4.52 Always

Discussion

This study was conducted in order to identify the Relationship of Listening to Music and

Students’ Mental Health. The analysis of data reveals that majority of the students are free from

eating disorder, however, there are some who are suffering from this illness. This can be seen

in the mean of “I force myself to vomit, when I feel like I've eaten too much food” considered as

the highest mean above all the means presented in the table. Unfortunately, the lowest mean

from “When someone gets mad at me, I can't stop thinking about it for a whole day” indicates

that majority of the respondents are experiencing this, but there are some who does not. The

general mean of the level of mental health among the respondents is 2.82 which falls under the

Moderate Mental Health Level mean. The mean of the average hours listening to music is 1

Hour and 27 minutes or 1.45. The r-value of Time and Mental Health is -0.06 which means it

has a Negative Very Weak Relationship that has an indirect relationship indicating that the two

variables (time and mental health) move in an opposite direction.

Conclusion
 In this research, we examined the effectiveness of music to the mental condition

of the respondents. This study confirmed that there is a significant relationship between

music and students’ mental health based on statistical analysis. Most of the students were

placed under the Moderate Mental Health Level, while there are some who were placed

under Low Mental Health Level. There are no students who have claimed the healthy

standard level of mental health (High Mental Health Level). The general mean of the Level of

Mental Health of the respondents is 2.82 which is under Moderate Mental Health Level

means that most of them have some symptoms that can affect their quality of life. Most of the

students are suffering from different reasons. The researchers infer that music and mental

health has an inversely proportional relationship which means that the lesser their mental

health becomes, the more they tend listen to music, thus increasing the average hours of

listening to music. Music can alleviate stress and elevate the mood of the people. They listen

to music more often to gain a sense of comfort which can help them cope up with different

mechanisms.

Recommendations
1.) There should be sessions like homeroom sessions about relation in music and
student’s mental health.
a. The adviser can address the concerns of the students’ mental condition with
music therapy.
b. Teachers must have activities like singing altogether, jamming, and etc. which
encourages the students to participate and even boost their self-confidence.
c. Activities like Singing bee encourages the students to show their capabilities in
singing.
d. Open Forum can have a bigger help to give more knowledge about the topic.
e. The students are given the opportunity to perform their written songs.
 2.) Not just students but also teachers, facilitators, authorities must have a gathering
to widen their knowledge about the benefits of music to its mental health. Enhancing the
teachers’ experiences and awareness can help them give the necessary treatment for their
students who are suffering from such mental illness.

3.) Inviting the professionals like musician, music therapist, and doctors to give
lectures and disquisition. This will enhance the comprehension of the teachers and give more
excitement to the students in learning more about the topic.

References

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Ortiz Rivera, M. (2016). Nursing students' perception of music therapy in

mental health (Order No. 10120779). Available from ProQuest Central.
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Acknowledgements

We, authors, would like to express sincere and deepest gratitude to the WIFI connection

of one of the researcher’s neighborhood and friends. In addition, we also would like to

thank our understanding parents who supported our financial needs for the production

of the research papers. We would also like to credit Blessie’s mother for allowing the

authors to do research at their house and even prepared a dish as the dinner. However,

none of the researchers’ work will be shown to our beautiful and young panelist without

the help of the JRU Service Bureau so kudos to them as well.