Music listening as a coping resource in domestic and international university students

Abstract

Starting university can be challenging for students, and emerging research indicates that music listening may be a helpful coping resource. At this stage, little is known about the music listening motivations of international and domestic university students, and whether there are differences between these two cohorts in terms of whether their music listening is an effective coping resource for increased well-being. These questions were examined with an online cross-sectional survey of first-year students at a major Australian university ( N = 475; 61.9% domestic, 38.1% international). Music listening was an effective coping strategy for managing stress for 72.6% of domestic students and 59.2% of international students. The relationships between music and well-being differed between cohorts—for international students (but not domestic), higher endorsement of music listening as an effective coping strategy was associated with greater well-being. In addition, a moderated mediation analysis demonstrated that, in contrast to international students, for domestic students, more music listening was associated with more use of music for emotional reasons and decreased well-being. Students’ relationship with music as a coping resource is complex, and further research is necessary to determine the direction of these effects.