[Q]I don't think it's quite the same; the heavy metal/rock messages versus Rap. The rock/metal argument wasn't about a thug lifestyle. It didn't glorify felonies[/Q]
they go hand in hand depending on the environment the child is coming from.
[Q]American Academy of Pediatrics' Committee on Communications (1989) recommends that "research concerning the impact rock music has on the behavior of adolescents and preadolescents be developed and supported."
This study was designed to test two hypotheses. The first states that heavy metal and rap listeners will be in more adolescent turmoil than will non-heavy metal and non-rap listeners. (Adolescent turmoil is defined to include a history of more peer, school, substance abuse, sexual activity, legal, home behavior, and psychiatric problems, and less traditional religious affiliation.) The second hypothesis is that listening to heavy metal or rap music is just another sign of adolescent turmoil. Thus, it will be found that heavy metal and rap listeners will have some precipitating factors in their lives other than their choice of music which could account for the increased turmoil. These other factors may have to do with demographics, a more disturbed family history (e.g., more parental substance abuse, marital unhappiness, parental arrests), or difficulties in elementary school (e.g., below average grades, history of being suspended or expelled, peer problems).
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This combination resulted in a total of 48 subjects (26 heavy metal, 22 rap). The 39 subjects remaining in the "other" group listed a wide variety of music choices with no substantial number listing any one type. The mean age in the heavy metal/rap (HM/R) group was 14.7 (range 13-18), with 14.6 the mean in the Other group (range 12-18) (p [is greater than] .05). When examined individually, both the heavy metal and the rap groups were found to be composed mostly of males (heavy metal, 65%; rap, 64%). Adding the two groups together resulted in significantly more males (p = .01) in the HM/R group (64% male, 36% female), than in the Other group (35% male, 65% female). When combined, there were no statistically significant racial differences, with the HM/R group being composed of 72% Caucasian, 4% Asian, 8% black, 8% Hispanic, and 6% other; and the Other group 55% Caucasian, 18% Asian, 8% black, 5% Hispanic, and 13% other. (Prior to combination, the rap group was composed of 54% Caucasian, 4% Asian, 18% black, 14% Hispanic, and 9% other; and the heavy metal group 88% Caucasian, 4% Asian, 0% black, 4% Hispanic, and 4% other.)
When the other variables were compared, many more significant factors appeared. On the adolescent questionnaire there were six significant (p [is less than or equal to] .05) variables. Five of these variables showed more turmoil in the HM/R group: Current grades below average (46% HM/R, 24% Other), suspended or expelled from junior or high school (44% HM/R, 23% Other), illicit drug use (23% HM/R, 8% Other), sexually active (40% HM/R, 18% Other), and counseling for drugs/alcohol (38% HM/R, 15% Other). (There were no differences in the total number of subjects in counseling, just the reason listed for the counseling.) The only significant variable for the Other group was also related to the reason for counseling; 68% of the Other group listed family problems as compared to 45% of the HM/R group.
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CONCLUSIONS
One of the difficulties with this study is that participation was based on hospital or clinic attendance; thus the sample is prone to be in more turmoil. Yet one of the major points of the study is that there is less association of heavy metal and rap music with adolescent turmoil than was previously suspected and, if anything, one would expect this population to be more influenced by the negative messages of this type of music. Another one of the limits of the study is that it is based on self-report. As a check on reliability, both parents and adolescents were asked the same questions about the adolescents' current functioning. Although there is some variation in the exact type of difficulties the adolescents were reported to be experiencing, there is a surprising and reassuring consistency between the two sources. (However, when the parents were asked about themselves, there may have been more hesitancy to disclose information.)
Upon initial evaluation there appears to be a strong validation of the first hypothesis. Both the adolescents and their parents report significantly more turmoil in the lives of the adolescents who listen to heavy metal and rap. However, when the second hypothesis is explored, these findings are changed substantially. The majority of the heavy metal and rap listeners, as suspected from the study by Waas (1988-89), turned out to be male. When the groups are balanced, much of the turmoil associated with the heavy metal and rap listeners disappears, suggesting that gender plays an important role in these findings.
What we may be seeing in the unbalanced heavy metal and rap groups are merely behaviors associated with being an adolescent male. Aggressive and destructive behaviors are more common in boys (Gabel & Schindledecker, 1991), which can account for the increased prevalence of the unbalanced HM/R group being suspended, expelled, or arrested. Adolescent boys also tend to be more sexually active than are girls (Gordon & Gilgun, 1987) and, although the predominance of male drug and alcohol abuse is disappearing (Wechsler & McFadden, 1976), the majority of males seems to be responsible for the reports of their increased use as well. Finally, the only significant variable for the Other group also disappears when the groups are balanced. Of the adolescents in counseling, more in the Other group stated that it was for family problems. Since there was a majority of females in the unbalanced Other group, this may suggest that adolescent girls seek counseling more for family problems, or it may merely be that fewer of them checked drugs and alcohol or school problems as their reason for counseling.
The only significant differences still present after the groups are balanced are related to school. Both the parents and the adolescents agree that the heavy metal and rap listeners have below average current grades. The argument could be made that heavy metal and rap music are somehow contributing to the poor grades; but the data show that these adolescents have a history of school problems at the elementary level, before many of them began listening to heavy metal and rap.
Similar to the findings by Roe (1987), this study suggests that early poor academic achievement may draw adolescents to these types of music. School is the major task of the grade school child. Erickson (1963) refers to it as the period of "Industry vs. Inferiority." If children cannot perform well academically, they end up feeling discouraged and inferior. As adolescence approaches they do not identify with their role as student, and will grasp at other ways to fit in and build their self-esteem. One of the things they seem to grasp at is heavy metal and rap music because these types of music offer them several things. They supply them with an identity, complete with clothes and hairstyle. They also offer a peer group that has few requirements for entry. They do not need to be scholars or athletes, or even have musical talent. Finally, the image of the music gives these adolescents a sense of power, something they may not have anywhere else in their lives.
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