Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts 2013 American Psychological Association

2013, Vol. 7, No. 4, 384 390 1931-3896/13/$12.00 DOI: 10.1037/a0034495

Music Listening Motivation Is Associated With Global Happiness in

Canadian Late Adolescents

Amlie Morinville, Dave Miranda, and Patrick Gaudreau

University of Ottawa

Music is among the most pleasurable, motivating, and satisfying everyday artistic activities in adoles-
This article is intended solely for the personal use of the individual user and is not to be disseminated broadly.

cence. Although the domain of music psychology has shown that listening to music can induce happiness
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as an emotional state, there is a rarity of research examining whether music listening can be associated
with a global happiness, namely, subjective well-being (SWB). The aim of this study was to test a
self-determination model in which self-determined motivation for listening to music can be linked with
more SWB among late adolescents. A Canadian sample of 229 late adolescents (M 18.24 years old,
SD 0.95; range 17 to 21 years old) completed measures of self-determined music listening (listening
to music for autonomous motives vs. controlled motives) and of SWB (positive and negative affects, as
well as life satisfaction). Results from structural equation modeling confirmed that higher levels of
self-determined motivation for listening to music predicted more SWB. These findings suggest that
young people may have a happier life when they listen to music for autonomous/self-determined reasons
(e.g., because music is inherently pleasurable and personally meaningful). Therefore, our study draws
research directions for music psychology and the psychology of positive youth development by discuss-
ing the role of music motivation in the development of happiness in youth.

Keywords: music, self-determination, autonomy, happiness, subjective well-being, adolescence

Over the years, psychology has cumulated robust evidence that
listening to music can induce happiness as an emotional state
(Juslin & Sloboda, 2010). Surprisingly, however, far less is known
about whether music listening can also impact global happiness,
particularly in adolescence. This study investigates this understud-
ied research arena by testing a model in which motivation for
listening to music can be linked with more global happiness among
late adolescents.
Global Happiness, Music, and Adolescence
Global happiness can be defined as subjective well-being
(SWB) when it consists of peoples personal, subjective, and
global evaluation of their cognitive and affective quality of life
(Diener, Suh, Lucas, & Smith, 1999). SWB is a major need and life
outcome that is fostered by many predictors, such as personality,
economic wellness, and psychosocial prosperity (Diener, Ng, Har-
ter, & Arora, 2010; Diener et al., 1999; Fischer & Boer, 2011).
Could global happiness (SWB) be receptive to a positive influence
This article was published Online First October 14, 2013.
Amlie Morinville, Dave Miranda, and Patrick Gaudreau, School of
Psychology, University of Ottawa.
We thank Camille Blais-Rochette, Melisa Arias-Valenzuela, and Karole
Vaugon for their thoughtful comments on an earlier version of this article.
Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Amlie
Morinville, School of Psychology, Faculty of Social Sciences, University
of Ottawa, 136 Jean-Jacques Lussier, K1N 6N5, Ottawa, ON Canada.
E-mail: amori089@uottawa.ca
from music listening in youth? It seems plausible, because music
is among the most pleasurable, motivating, and satisfying artistic
activities for adolescents (North, Hargreaves, & ONeill, 2000;
Roberts, Henriksen, & Foehr, 2009). Music listening is a self-
selected activity in which adolescents engage while progressing
through a developmental period characterized by increased auton-
omy in their everyday lives (Steinberg, 2011). First, adolescents
volitionally listen to music for aesthetic pleasure, emotion regula-
tion, and identity formation (Saarikallio & Erkkil, 2007). Second,
they acquire musical competence by shaping definite and consis-
tent music preferences (Mulder, ter Bogt, Raaijmakers, Gabhainn,
& Sikkema, 2010). Third, they use music as a social resource for
peer relatedness and friendship (Selfhout, Branje, ter Bogt, &
Meeus, 2009). In sum, music can play important and normative
functions in adolescents autonomy development, which may fos-
ter their global happiness.
Herein, however, we focus on the fact that adolescents can listen
to music for a variety of reasons that are likely to differ substan-
tially from one adolescent to another. As such, we propose that
some of the positive role of music can depend on the level of
self-determination that drives music-listening behaviors, with
higher self-determined motivation being more likely to promote
optimal development and well-being (Ryan & Deci, 2000). Hence,
we posited that listening to music for self-determined reasons may
be positively associated with global happiness (SWB) during ad-
olescence, given that this period is characterized by increasing
autonomy development. We thought this could occur particularly
among late adolescents for two reasons. First, in terms of devel-
opment, they are usually much more autonomous at this final stage

384
 MUSIC MOTIVATION AND HAPPINESS
of adolescence (Steinberg, 2011). Second, in terms of music be-
havior, older adolescents usually devote more time to music lis-
tening (between 2 and 3 hr on a given day of the week; North et
al., 2000; Roberts et al., 2009; Tarrant, North, & Hargreaves, 2000;
Zillman & Gan, 1997).
Autonomy Development in Adolescence
The concept of autonomy is often depicted as a developmental
milestone achieved during adolescence (Steinberg, 2011). Auton-
omy development is explained by various terms, including agency,
formation of identity, decision making, desire for independence,
and the pursuit of goals (Zimmer-Gembeck & Collins, 2003).
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Overall, autonomy increases gradually during adolescence and
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more sharply in late adolescence (Gutman & Eccles, 2007; Wray-
Lake, Crouter, & McHale, 2010). Autonomy can also have three
facets: emotional (e.g., adolescents may feel less need for support
from parents), behavioral (e.g., adolescents can act independently
from parents and peers), and cognitive (e.g., adolescents own
personal values, opinions, and thoughts; Steinberg, 2011). Re-
cently, adolescents motivational autonomy was conceptualized as
self-determined motivation. Adolescents self-determined motiva-
tion is a form of autonomy that can be distinguished from their
desire for independence because it captures motives for which they
volitionally decide to exert their autonomy (Soenens & Vansteen-
kiste, 2005; Van Petegem, Beyers, Vansteenkiste, & Soenens,
2012). Hence, we posit that adolescents self-determined motiva-
tion is a normative form of autonomy that can include the reasons
for which they decide to listen to music in everyday life.
Music and Happiness
There is ample evidence that music may promote various states
of happiness (Juslin, Liljestrm, Vstfjll, Barradas, & Silva,
2008; North et al., 2000; Saarikallio, 2011; Saarikallio & Erkkil,
2007; Salimpoor, Benovoy, Larcher, Dagher, & Zatorre, 2011).
Thus far, however, studies have primarily shown that music can
induce happiness as an emotional state (emotional reactions or
experiences; Juslin & Sloboda, 2010) or be linked with separate
facets of global happiness (e.g., Laukka, 2007; Miranda & Gaud-
reau, 2011). For instance, in older adults, various listening strate-
gies, such as mood regulation, identity, and agency, were posi-
tively linked with emotional well-being (more positive affect and
less negative affect), but were not related to life satisfaction
(Laukka, 2007). Although music might not be associated with life
satisfaction in older adults, it may still be related to life satisfaction
among adolescents, given the ubiquity and meaningfulness of
music in their everyday lives. In adolescence, more specifically,
Miranda and Gaudreau (2011) have shown that positive emotions
from listening to music were associated with greater emotional
well-being (i.e., greater positive affects and lesser negative af-
fects). Unfortunately, life satisfaction was not measured in their
study.
Hence, very few studies have examined the role of music in
association with a more stable and global conceptualization of
happiness, especially in adolescence. The extant studies (Laukka,
2007; Miranda & Gaudreau, 2011) are still very informative inso-
far as they examined emotional well-being through the same
affective facets (positive and negative affects) that usually repre-
385
sent the emotional aspect of SWB. Nevertheless, these two studies
were not conducted with the same age populations and they did not
fully measure SWB in adolescence. In sum, the present study
conceptualized global happiness through the construct of SWB
(pleasant affect, unpleasant affect, and life satisfaction; Diener et
al., 1999). This enabled us to examine whether music listening
motivation positively relates to enduring and global feelings of
positive engagement and satisfaction with ones life during late
adolescence.
Music and Motivation
The amount of music listening in adolescence does not offer a
complete outlook on the potential impact of music on global
happiness insofar as adolescents can listen to music for a variety of
reasons. The literature on music motivation is gradually becoming
more substantial and nuanced (e.g., Chamorro-Premuzic, Goma-i-
Freixanet, Furnham, & Muro, 2009; Laukka, 2007; North et al.,
2000; Saarikallio, 2011; ter Bogt, Mulder, Raaijmakers, & Gab-
hainn, 2011). This innovative line of research has identified sev-
eral music listening motives in adolescencesuch as emotion
regulation, identity, and enjoymentthat should foster emotional
well-being and satisfaction with everyday social life. For instance,
Saarikallio (2011) found that an important reason for listening to
music among adults was to engage in an emotional self-regulation
that involves happy mood maintenance, revival, strong sensation,
diversion, discharge, mental work, solace, and so-called psyching
up. However, this literature remains largely exploratory, as it has
yet to investigate music listening within the confines of authori-
tative theoretical frameworks that are regularly used in personality
and social psychology to conceptualize human motivation across a
wide array of life activities and domains of relevance during
adolescence.
The self-determination theory (SDT; Ryan & Deci, 2000) offers
a promising motivational framework to understand why late ado-
lescents decide to listen to music. SDT proposes that reasons for
doing an activity can be operationalized through two broad dimen-
sions of motivation. On the one hand, an individual can do an
activity because of autonomous motivation. The more an activity
is done for autonomous reasons, the more it is done by personal
choice and in a totally voluntary way. For instance, adolescents
can listen to music for the inherent pleasure and satisfaction
provided by music (i.e., intrinsic motivation). Therefore, the more
adolescents listen to music because they truly enjoy doing this
activity, the more they would be described as having intrinsic
motivation toward music listening. They can also listen to music
for the personal importance and meaningfulness attached to music
(i.e., identified motivation). Therefore, adolescents can listen to
music because they value and judge that music listening is inti-
mately important to them. In such cases, an adolescent would be
characterized as possessing high levels of autonomous motivation
for music listening. For instance, adolescents can listen to music
because they deem music to be important for their personal devel-
opment. They can also listen to music because they consider it to
be a valuable personal activity.
On the other hand, individuals can do an activity because of
controlled motivation. In such cases, the activity is done for
reasons that are external to their self or because of the social
pressure experienced from others. In the popular media, and even
 386 MORINVILLE, MIRANDA, AND GAUDREAU
in scholarly work, music listening is often stereotypically depicted
as a behavior that is typical of most adolescents. In turn, this may
create a powerful subjective norm by which some adolescents
might feel somewhat socially pressured to listen to music in order
to fit among peers, family members or even larger cultural events.
As such, adolescents may listen to music to diminish feelings of
guilt and shame or anxiety (i.e., introjected motivation), or because
of external social pressure (i.e., extrinsic motivation)notably,
expectations from peers. Some adolescents may thus listen to
music because they want to socialize with high-status peers that
adore music or because they fear that not listening to music may
hinder their popularity at school. Hence, such behavior would
indicate that an adolescent is characterized as possessing high
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levels of controlled motivation for music listening.
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In sum, all individuals possess both dimensions of autonomous
and controlled motives for listening to music. However, there are
individual differences, in that each individual can have a different
degree of autonomous motives and of controlled motives, respec-
tively. Although adolescent research in music psychology has
rarely examined motivation within the well-established confines of
SDT, much research in personality, developmental, and social
psychology has shown that people who engage in an activity for
autonomous reasons (for the pure pleasure) as opposed to con-
trolled reasons (to diminish feelings of guilt or social pressure)
also tend to report more SWB (e.g., Przybylski, Weinstein, Mu-
rayama, Lynch, & Ryan, 2012). Hence, self-determined music
listening includes more autonomous reasons and less controlled
reasons for listening to music.
This study thereby testedthrough structural equation model-
inga self-determination model in which it was hypothesized that
self-determined reasons for listening to music can predict more
SWB in late adolescence. Furthermore, it was expected that self-
determination for music listening would still predict SWB even
after controlling for the amount of time spent listening to music. In
other words, the motivation underlying music listening should add
incremental validity to our understanding of the role of music in
the psychosocial development of late adolescents.
Method
Sample and Procedure
The sample consisted initially of 379 undergraduate students
attending a Canadian university. Participants were recruited in
class and through a subject pool at their university. This study was
approved by the universitys research ethics board. Participants
received an e-mail invitation with an online informed consent
form. Those who freely consented to participate completed a
confidential online questionnaire.
The data for self-determined music listening were only available
for those 270 participants recruited through the subject pool. From
those participants, 238 were aged between 17 and 21 years and
thus were considered as being late adolescents (Steinberg, 2011).
Five participants were identified as multivariate outliers with the
Mahalanobis technique (p .001) and excluded from the analysis.
The Mahalanobis distance is a technique to detect multivariate
outliers with respect to the values of the studied variables. This
distance is calculated between each data point and the centroid,
which represents the intersection of the means for these variables
(Tabachnick & Fidell, 2007). We also excluded four participants
that were univariate outliers on our control variable, which was the
time (hours) spent listening to music each week.
The final sample for this study consisted of 229 late adolescents
ranging from 17 to 21 years of age (M 18.24, SD 0.95; 85.5%
female). The majority of participants were first-year students
(79%). The sample was fairly ethnoculturally diverse in a Cana-
dian context, with participants self-identifying as being White
(61.6%), Black (6.6%), Asian (15.7%), Hispanic (2.6%), Aborig-
inal/Native (0.4%), or of another ethnicity (13.1%). Finally, only
three participants were enrolled in an academic program related to
music.
Measures
Self-determined music listening. This measure was inspired
by self-determination research on self-concordance. The original
four-item index of self-concordance (e.g., Sheldon & Kasser,
1998) was adapted as a 12-item scale of self-determined music
listening. The scale measured intrinsic (three items; e.g., because
of the fun and enjoyment that music provides me), identified
(three items; e.g., because music is important and valuable to
me), introjected (three items; e.g., because I would feel bad
about myself if I didnt like music), and extrinsic (three items;
e.g., because others might criticize me if I do not like music)
motives for listening to music. Participants rated their degree of
self-determined/autonomous motives (intrinsic and identified) ver-
sus non-self-determined/controlled motives (introjected and ex-
trinsic) for listening to music on a scale of 1 (not at all for this
reason) to 7 (totally for this reason). We computed a total scale of
self-determined music listening by adding the autonomous moti-
vation subscale to the controlled motivation subscale (reversed).
The self-determined music listening scale had satisfactory internal
consistency ( .76).
Positive and negative affects. The measure of affects con-
sisted of a short version of the Positive Affect Negative Affect
Schedule (PANAS; Emmons, 1992). In this study, the adjective
bored was added. Participants rated 10 adjectives according to
their levels of positive (e.g., happy) and negative (e.g., depressed)
affects over the past week on a scale of 1 (not at all) to 7 (totally).
The positive ( .87) and negative ( .80) affect subscales
showed satisfactory internal consistency.
Life satisfaction. The measure of life satisfaction consisted of
the Satisfaction with Life Scale (Diener, Emmons, Larsen, &
Griffin, 1985). Five items (e.g., I am satisfied with my life)
asked participants to rate their levels of satisfaction with life on a
scale from 1 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree). The scale
had good internal consistency ( .90).
Results
Table 1 presents the descriptive statistics and correlations
(Spearmans rho) for the variables. To conceptualize the measure-
ment of self-determined music listening as a single latent con-
struct, we performed a domain-representative approach to parcel-
ing (Little, Cunningham, Shahar, & Widaman, 2002), in which
items of autonomous reasons were paired with (reversed) items of
controlled reasons to create theoretically driven indicators of self-
determined motivation for music listening. The latent construct of
 MUSIC MOTIVATION AND HAPPINESS 387

Table 1 than .08 for the root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA)
Descriptive Statistics and Intercorrelations Among Variables indicates an acceptable fit, whereas values below .06 indicates a
good fit (Hu & Bentler, 1999; Kline, 2011).
1 2 3 4 5 As depicted in Figure 1, the structural equation model yielded a
1. Self-determined music listening good fit to the data, 2(12, N 229) 15.24, p .05; CFI
2. Positive affect .18 1.00; RMSEA 0.03 (90% CI [0.000, 0.08]); NFI 1.00.
3. Negative affect .03 .43 Loadings for all indicators were significant (p .05). This struc-
4. Life satisfaction .16 .60 .48 tural equation model thereby indicated that higher levels of self-
5. Time spent listening to music .24 .01 .02 .03
Mean 6.02 4.78 3.27 4.96 14.87 determined motivation for listening to music predicted signifi-
Standard deviation 0.64 1.07 1.11 1.32 12.46 cantly higher levels of SWB ( .25, p .05; R2 .06) in
Cronbachs alpha () .76 .87 .80 .90 Canadian late adolescents, even when controlling for the time they

p .05.
p .01. usually spend listening to music.
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Discussion
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SWB was measured through an internal-consistency approach to

parceling (Little et al., 2002), namely, by using the scales of
positive affect, negative affect, and life satisfaction as indicators.
We also used the number of hours spent listening to music each
week (i.e., manifest variable) as a covariate in our model.
Structural equation modeling (SEM) was performed using max-
imum likelihood with EQS 6.1 to test our hypothetical model (see
Figure 1). In SEM, the models adequacy is determined by a
nonsignificant chi square (p .05), as it demonstrates that the
model is not significantly different from the data (Kline, 2011).
The null hypothesis of a SEM model specifies that the observed
covariance matrix does not significantly differ from the implied
covariance matrix of the proposed model. Rejection of the null
hypothesis (p .05) therefore indicates the misfit (rather than the
good fit) of the proposed model. Failure to reject the null hypoth-
esis (p .05) is therefore good news because it indicates that the
discrepancy between the observed covariance and the model are
minimal and not statistically significant. Although one cannot
accept a null hypothesis, the failure to reject the null hypothesis
can be taken as an indicator that not enough evidence is available
to suggest significant problems in the proposed model; the model
offers a good fit to the data. In this study, to account for the large
sample, which typically yields a significant chi square, we used
complementary fit indexes. A well-fitted model has values above
.95 for the comparative fit index (CFI) and normed-fit index (NFI),
whereas values between .90 and .94 indicate an acceptable fit for
those indexes (Hu & Bentler, 1999). Additionally, a value of less
Music listening can induce happiness as an emotional state
(Juslin & Sloboda, 2010); however, far less is known about music
listening and global happiness, particularly in late adolescence.
Our findings lent credence to our hypothesis: Self-determined
motivation for listening to music was linked with more SWB
(more pleasant affect, less unpleasant affect, and more life satis-
faction) among Canadian late adolescents, even when controlling
for the time they usually spend listening to music.
Music Listening and Global Happiness
Our findings are in line with those of prior studies on music and
different facets of happiness. Music is known to be a resource for
emotion regulation in childhood, adolescence, and adulthood
(North et al., 2000; Saarikallio, 2011; Saarikallio & Erkkil, 2007).
This music function could be especially pertinent to understand the
emotional aspect of SWB because emotion regulation refers to
the mechanism through which individuals are being able to vary
the intensity and valance of their emotions (Gross, 2009). The
potential impact of music listening on global happiness in late
adolescence may also have biological underpinnings. Neuroimag-
ing techniques (functional magnetic resonance imaging and posi-
tron emission tomography) have indicated that music modulates
patterns of dopamine activation that can regulate pleasure and
motivation (Menon & Levitin, 2005; Salimpoor et al., 2011).
Although much more research is needed, we posit that music

Figure 1. SEM of music listening motivation and global happiness in late adolescence (N 229).
 388 MORINVILLE, MIRANDA, AND GAUDREAU
listening is a ubiquitous behavior that exposes young listeners to
multiple and potent gratifying stimuli that can directly influence
their global happiness. The positive influence of music has often
been evidenced by experimental studies that have confirmed that
happiness states are typically induced by certain musical pieces
(Juslin & Sloboda, 2010). Of course, the positive aspects of music
are subjectively appraised by the listener, but they may also reside
in the music itself. For instance, individuals can identify happiness
in a musical piece without necessarily feeling the emotion (Hunter,
Schellenberg, & Schimmack, 2010).
Positive emotional reactions from music listening have previ-
ously been tied to emotional well-being in adolescence (Miranda
& Gaudreau, 2011), but there were no data about life satisfaction.
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In late adulthood, mood regulation by music listening has been
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related to emotional well-being but not to life satisfaction (Laukka,
2007). Perhaps music can be related to life satisfaction among
adolescents in particular, given its ubiquity and meaningfulness in
their everyday lives. Or perhaps these older adults and the present
late adolescents used a different time frame to assess life satisfac-
tion. Compared with an adolescent, an older adult might have a
much more extensive autobiographical outlook on life, and, con-
sequently, this could create age-related differences in their assess-
ment of life satisfaction. Hence, our research report builds on these
previous studies and further demonstrates a possible impact of
music listening motivation on global happiness, at least in Cana-
dian late adolescents.
Music Listening and Motivation
This study also supports the pertinence of studying motivation
for listening to music. This is a rejoinder to recent research that has
shed light on the pivotal question of music listening motivation. In
adolescence, North et al. (2000) found that motives for listening to
music included creating a social image, satisfying emotional
needs, and enjoyment, while ter Bogt et al. (2011) showed that
reasons for listening to music extended to mood enhancement,
coping with problems, defining personal identity, and marking
social identity. In emerging adulthood, Chamorro-Premuzic et al.
(2009) confirmed that motives for listening to music can pertain to
emotional use, rational/cognitive use, and background use. More-
over, Saarikallio (2011) found that a focal purpose for listening to
music throughout adulthood was to engage in emotional self-
regulation. Finally, Laukka (2007) found that older adults can
listen to music for the purposes of identity and agency, mood
regulation, relaxation and company, and enjoyment. However, our
study strived to delve into a more basic form of music motivation
than these previous studies. To this end, we successfully used a
prominent motivation paradigmself-determination theoryas a
theoretical framework that improved our understanding of the
interface between music listening and global happiness in youth.
Thanks to this framework, we showed that motives for listening to
music can predict happiness over and beyond the mere time spent
listening to music.
Music Listening and Positive Youth Development
Thus far, psychological research has focused a lot on the
posited deleterious role of so-called problematic music in youth
(North & Hargreaves, 2008). In turn, our brief report draws re-
search directions for positive youth development. Adolescent psy-
chology informs that structured leisure activities (e.g., out-of-
school activities, scouts, volunteering) are pivotal for positive
youth development (Mahoney, Vandell, Simpkins, & Zarrett,
2009), whereas unstructured leisure activities that involve pas-
sively indulging in media consumption (e.g., TV) can hinder
adolescents well-being (Trainor, Delfabbro, Anderson, & Wine-
field, 2010). Unfortunately, that line of research has often focused
on what adolescents do rather than why they decide to do it. Music
listening is among the most important and meaningful unstructured
leisure activities for adolescents (North et al., 2000; Roberts et al.,
2009). Their autonomy development may transcend their self-
determined music listening motives (e.g., emotion regulation,
identity, pleasure; Saarikallio & Erkkil, 2007), music preferences
(e.g., competence and consistency in music tastes; Mulder et al.,
2010), and socialization (e.g., peer relatedness and friendship
formation; Mulder et al., 2010). This intense expression of self-
determination through music listening should contribute in satis-
fying fundamental psychosocial needs (autonomy, competence,
and relatedness) that can promote optimal development and well-
being (Przybylski et al., 2012; Ryan & Deci, 2000). For adoles-
cents, music listening can be a particularly autonomous and ubiq-
uitous activity, and their self-determined motives for listening to
music can probably contribute to their global happiness.
Limitations
This study obviously had some shortcomings. The sample con-
sisted primarily of female participants, but having a more equiv-
alent proportion of female and male participants would have been
pertinent to examine potential gender differences that can occur in
adolescents music behaviors (North et al., 2000). Moreover, the
cross-sectional design cannot confirm direction in prediction per
se. It could also be that global happiness promotes self-determined
motives for listening to music in order to maintain positive mood
congruency. We only used one type of data, given that all mea-
sures were self-reported. Upcoming studies could use complemen-
tary social measures from the observation of other informants, or
even mix methods that would include interview data. The short-
term retrospective question that we adopted to anchor the items of
the PANAS may have captured emotional traits, yet also emotional
states. This is a limitation because we aimed to measure a more
global/trait measure of happiness through SWB. Moreover, our
convenience sample was not representative of the adolescent pop-
ulation in Canada. Future cross-cultural studies are also needed to
examine if our findings can replicate in other cultural contexts.
On a final note, although our study sheds light on the positive
impact of music on happiness, other studies have documented both
its positive and negative impacts on mental health (Miranda,
Gaudreau, Debrosse, Morizot, & Kirmayer, 2012). Forthcoming
studies could also study music listening motivation as an anteced-
ent of multiple consequential outcomes that cover a fuller spec-
trum of the mental health continuum in adolescence, from positive
psychology (SWB) to psychopathology (depression). Indeed, pre-
vious research has indicated that everyday music listening (Mi-
randa & Claes, 2009), as well as structured artistic activities
(Young, Winner, & Cordes, 2012), may reduce depression in
adolescence.
 MUSIC MOTIVATION AND HAPPINESS
Conclusions
In sum, this study suggests that listening to music for self-
determined reasons (e.g., inherent pleasure and personal meaning)
may promote global happiness in Canadian late adolescents. This
self-determined motivation for listening to music is probably fu-
eled by a period of heightened autonomy development in which
late adolescents decide exactly why and how they engage in
everyday activities. Although this seems to be a normative trend,
individual differences reveal that some adolescents distinguish
themselves by listening to their favorite music for reasons that are
particularly more autonomous. Future research should determine
the extent to which an optimal self-determined musicality can
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bolster positive youth development.
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Received November 2, 2012
Revision received June 12, 2013
Accepted June 14, 2013