Allison Y's Senior Project Blog

Project Title: The Effect of Music on Mental Health and Well-Being Among College Students BASIS Advisor: Chuck Stewart Internship Location: Northern Arizona University (NAU), remote Onsite Mentor: Professor Katherine Mommaerts, PhD, MSW, LCSW

Project Abstract

This project aims to examine the role music plays in the lives of college students. With a mental health crisis in America and college students entering an uncertain chapter in their lives, I hope to understand how music is used as a coping mechanism to improve upon mental health and well-being. The nonverbal nature of music has the ability to connect communities and music’s different genres and types allow it to be flexible and open to everyone’s likes and needs. In this generation with popular and accessible music streaming apps like Spotify, music is all around us, especially in young adults. In this study, I’ll be collecting data through a Google form survey, asking questions about the use and impact of music in participants' lives. From this, I hope to understand the impact of music on college students' lives: how does music affect, both positively and negatively, a college student’s academic experience? How does music improve a student’s mental health and well-being in college? Overall, mental health is a very important issue to look at as it has major implications for people’s well-being in general, and I hope this study can reflect the power that music holds.