All parents of a young teen have heard of Justin Bieber and One Direction – they’re a teenager’s anthem, the cute boy the pine over and their songs make them squeal with excitement.
Now parents have a reason to love these music stars too, a study in the Netherlands shows that kids who listen to “mainstream music” such as music by Justin Bieber and One Direction will end up being better behaved in the future.
Parents who think it’s cute that their kids are hipsters by rejecting mainstream pop music should think again. Findings of the research done show that kids who listen to “unconventional music” like hip-hop, punk and trance, are more likely to become delinquents.
Music taste and delinquency
The study conducted was tested on 300 children in the Netherlands. The study followed the children for four years of their adolescence where researchers found out their favourite types of music and tracked incidents of ‘minor delinquency’ like shoplifting and vandalism, from when they were 12-years-old till they reached the age of 16.
Does hip-hop really causes your kids to ‘act out’?
Kids who were into hip-hop, metal, gothic, punk, trance and techno reportedly started to ‘act out’ and did so by the time they were 16.
Whereas, kids who enjoyed rock music at age 12 were relatively well-behaved, but were more likely to engage in bad behaviour when they reach 16.
On the other spectrum, researchers predicted that kids who listened to mainstream pop, classical or jazz would probably not have a future of delinquency.
Take note of what your children are listening to
The study suggests that what can be seen as “innocent” enjoyment of “deviant” music may be an early sign that the kids may grow up to be deviants themselves.
The authors theorize that “Music is the medium that separates mainstream youth from young people who may more easily adopt norm-breaking behaviours.”
They also suggest that “in peer groups characterized by their deviant music taste, norm-breaking youth may ‘infect’ their friends with their behaviour.”
So perhaps parents should take a closer look at what kind of music their kids are listening to. Your teen’s music taste may determine what kind of behaviour they will have in the future.
Do you think that music is really to blame for a child acting out? Do you agree with the study’s conclusion?
Some parents might argue that they listen to the same genre and they turn out perfectly fine. That is true in nature, and music alone should not be the main cause of children acting out badly.
However, it is a parent’s responsibility to ensure what their children listening to are appropriate and as of age. And even if they start to listen to music that we do not approve of, it is also our responsibility to teach them what is right and wrong.
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