Emotion regulation with music in depressed and non-depressed individuals

Abstract

Music is often used for regulating emotions in everyday life and could have both beneficial and harmful effects on emotional health. Depression is associated with impaired emotion-regulation skills, but few studies have examined whether such impairments apply to a musical context also. The aim of the present study was thus to compare depressed and non-depressed individuals with regard to their use of music for emotion regulation in everyday life. Seventy-seven listeners (19–65 years old) filled out a brief questionnaire, which measured emotion regulation in terms of the prevalence of various regulation goals, strategies, and mechanisms. The overall results indicated that the most frequent goal was to enhance positive emotions. Discharge was the most frequently used strategy and suppression was the least frequently used. A range of causal mechanisms were reported to occur. Contrary to our hypotheses, there were few differences between depressed and non-depressed listeners. We argue that knowledge gained from studies of emotion regulation may be used in field interventions that aim to teach depressed individuals how to use music to regulate emotions effectively.