Shake it off: how music helps university students cope with negative emotions

Abstract

Music is deeply integrated into daily life and frequently serves as a tool for emotional regulation. This study examines how university students use music to cope with negative emotions, with a focus on the specific qualities of music that facilitate this process. Ten semi-structured interviews were conducted with university students who reported using music to cope. Thematic analysis and a modified grounded theory approach were adopted to analyse data. Participants selected music as a coping strategy for its accessibility, ability to facilitate emotional expression, create space for emotions, and provide encouragement. Five themes regarding the qualities of music that facilitated coping were identified: (i) Keep Holding On: Lyrics Offer Comfort and Validation, (ii) Boom Boom Pow: Sonic Aspects of Music, (iii) You Raise Me Up: The Role of the Artist, (iv) Sound and Vision: Connecting with Other Media, and (v) Higher Ground: Solace in Faith. Participants primarily engaged in emotion- focused coping, which helped them to reduce distress, and in turn facilitated problem-focused coping. Based on these findings, a model was developed to illustrate how music facilitates coping with negative emotions in university students. The results highlight music’s role as an adaptive and accessible tool for emotional regulation. Beyond individual use, the results suggest music-based interventions could be integrated into mental health support services for university students, with potential implications in broader mental health settings.