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Abstract
Amid various academic and psychosocial challenges commonly experienced by students during emerging adulthood, music becomes one of the closest and most accessible media for emotional expression and mood regulation. This study aims to examine the relationship between music preference and emotion regulation among undergraduate students at University X. Music preference refers to individuals’ tendency to favor certain musical genres, while emotion regulation refers to the ability to manage emotional experiences in daily life. The study involved 122 active students of University X, consisting of 46 males and 76 females, aged 18 to 25 years. The instruments used in this study were the Short Test of Music Preferences (STOMP) by Rentfrow & Gosling (2003) to measure music preferences, and the Music in Mood Regulation Scale (MMR) by Saarikallio (2007) to measure how individuals use music for emotion regulation. Prior to hypothesis testing, normality and linearity tests were conducted. Due to the non-normal distribution of data, the main analysis used the Spearman correlation test. The results showed a positive and significant correlation between music preference and emotion regulation, with ρ = 0.197 and p = 0.029 (< 0.05). These findings indicate that the higher an individual’s preference for music, the higher their tendency to use music as a strategy for regulating emotions. Therefore, music plays an important role in supporting students’ emotional well-being throughout their academic activities.
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