海角大神

Bothered by that racket coming from your teen鈥檚 bedroom? You know, the noise he insists is music? Turns out that you might have good reason, says a team of researchers from the Netherlands.

According to a study published in the Journal 鈥淧ediatrics鈥� earlier this month, a 12-year-old鈥檚 preference for what the academics described as 鈥渓oud, rebellious, and so-called 鈥榙eviant鈥� music鈥� is a predictor of later delinquency; more so, even, than early delinquency.

In other words, a young teen who loves punk rock is more likely, statistically, to shoplift or vandalize cars at age 16 than a jazz-loving 12-year-old who has already stolen, the research found.

鈥淢usic choice is a strong marker of later problem behavior,鈥� they wrote in the article.

Point, Tipper Gore.聽

There has been much research on the connection between music and problem behavior. (Oh, those Beatles with their long hair!)聽 And while some studies have shown that these connections 鈥� especially those claimed in popular discourse 鈥撀� are exaggerated, others have found statistically important links.

In Canadian, Dutch, US, and Swedish studies, researchers have found that from the 1980s onward, young people who prefer rock genres such as heavy metal, goth, and punk consistently also display more risky behavior, such as drunk driving, speeding, and alcohol and drug use. Research also shows that certain hip hop music fans 鈥� particularly those devotees of gangsta rap 鈥� are more likely than their peers to be involved in gangs, minor delinquency, and alcohol and drug use.

But there鈥檚 still a lot of debate about the whys and hows. Do teens inclined toward anti-social behavior simply gravitate to anti-social music? Or do violent music lyrics make teens more accepting of violence? Do teens who start breaking rules with their friends gravitate to music that valorizes their behavior, creating a reinforcing cycle?

In this most recent study, researchers set out to create a theoretical base for exploring these questions. They asked adolescents already involved in a longitudinal study about their music preferences, having them rate 11 popular styles of music on a 5-point scale. They also asked them to fill out a self-reporting questionnaire that measures minor delinquency, where subjects say how many times they had committed minor offenses such as shoplifting, petty theft, and vandalism.

The researchers repeated this process four times, when the subjects were 12, 14, 15, and 16. They worked to control for gender and other factors.

While there is still a lot more to learn, they acknowledge, they did find what they believe is a new starting place to explore the connections between music and behavior: and that鈥檚 early in adolescence.聽What a teen listened to at age 12 had a lot more to do with her behavior at 17 than did her later music taste.

They say there still needs to be more work exploring the why 鈥� and that future research should try to distinguish between teens who seem to like 鈥渄eviant media as part of a longer chain of problem behavior鈥� and those who like particular styles of music because, well, they like it.

鈥淩esearch needs to consider other young people for whom listening to music, which is often annoying to grown-ups, is energizing, comforting or simply fun, and functions similarly as adolescent-limited problem behavior," they wrote. "That is, as a test of personal and social limits.鈥�