Substance Abuse Linked to Music

BRIDGEWATER, Va. - Sept. 13, 2018 - PRLog -- Rapper Mac Miller died of an alleged drug overdose last week at the age of 26. His death is another representation on how the music is affected by substance abuse.

Dr. Erin Morris Miller, an assistant professor of Psychology at Bridgewater College, stated that while celebrities overdose deaths are low, adolescents may still emulate their behavior.

"Teens are not very good at evaluating risk and tend to underestimate the chance of something negative happening to themselves," she said. "Although these extreme examples are vivid, the real danger is not overdose but a gradual degrading of one's standard of living due to lowered grades and missed opportunities as a result of substance use."

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported that nationwide drug overdose deaths rose in the past three years.

Government and healthcare officials are trying to implement drug prevention and education programs directed toward adolescents and college students.

The University of Michigan's Monitoring the Future survey found that college student illicit drug use recently experienced its highest rates, especially regarding marijuana use.

Recent studies suggest that student drug abuse may be correlated with music listening choices.

Project Know conducted a study in 2014 that explored the number of drug and alcohol references in hip-hop songs from 1988 to 2013.

Miller and other faculty members at Bridgewater College in Virginia conducted another study to determine how music tastes influences student drug use.

"We were surprised that there were so few repeated songs among the participants," she said. "We had 60 participants and analyzed 884 different songs. What was interesting was that genre did not make a difference. Country music was listed as a favorite genre by 44 percent of the participants. There is less discussion of substance use in country music as compared to urban genres, however references in country music also contribute to the correlation."

She mentioned that the findings may have greater implications.

"Choosing to listen to music with a large number of references to substance use should be seen as a red flag," she concluded. "We are not saying that music is a causal factor, but that students should be aware of why they are choosing a certain kind of music. Having students who are in addiction recovery analyze their own musical library can be used as a segue into discussing the more subtle ways the environment is influencing their life choices."

https://www.drugaddictionnow.com/2018/09/13/link-substanc...