He Hanwei, Chen Shu, Hua Cheng
Faculty of Music, Fujian Normal University, Fuzhou, Fujian, China.
Faculty of Music and Dance, China West Normal University, Nanchong, Sichuan, China.
PLoS One. 2025 Aug 29;20(8):e0331373. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0331373. eCollection 2025.
Romantic relationship breakups are common experiences among young people and are associated with negative emotions that can jeopardize psychological well-being. Additionally, those with higher neuroticism may have greater emotional sensitivity towards the impact of music, as they tend to exhibit more negative and unstable emotional traits. As a result, they may be more inclined to control emotions by using music as a coping strategy. However, existing literature has rarely explored the differential roles of adaptive and maladaptive music-listening coping, as well as the mechanisms linking neuroticism and negative emotions associated with romantic breakups. To fill these gaps, the current study recruited 389 college students who had experienced at least one romantic breakup lasting two months or longer within the past five years. Participants completed a battery of questionnaires assessing relevant variables. Correlational analyses indicated that neuroticism and negative emotions related to romantic breakups were positively correlated with maladaptive music-listening coping. Conversely, neuroticism was negatively correlated with adaptive music-listening coping, while no discernible connection between adaptive music listening coping and negative emotions evoked by romantic breakups. Structural equation modeling suggested that neuroticism predicted emotional response to breakups through maladaptive music-listening coping, rather than adaptive music-listening coping. Theoretical and practical implications were discussed.
浪漫关系的破裂在年轻人中很常见，并且与可能危及心理健康的负面情绪有关。此外，神经质水平较高的人可能对音乐的影响具有更高的情感敏感性，因为他们往往表现出更多消极和不稳定的情绪特质。因此，他们可能更倾向于通过将音乐作为一种应对策略来控制情绪。然而，现有文献很少探讨适应性和非适应性音乐聆听应对的不同作用，以及连接神经质与浪漫关系破裂相关负面情绪的机制。为了填补这些空白，本研究招募了389名在过去五年中经历过至少一次持续两个月或更长时间的浪漫关系破裂的大学生。参与者完成了一系列评估相关变量的问卷。相关分析表明，与浪漫关系破裂相关的神经质和负面情绪与非适应性音乐聆听应对呈正相关。相反，神经质与适应性音乐聆听应对呈负相关，而适应性音乐聆听应对与浪漫关系破裂引发的负面情绪之间没有明显联系。结构方程模型表明，神经质通过非适应性音乐聆听应对而非适应性音乐聆听应对来预测对分手的情绪反应。讨论了理论和实践意义。
