Negative side effects of music listening during cross-cultural transitions: Exploring how music hinders cross-cultural (re)adaptation among student sojourners

Although media use has been shown to have benefits in many contexts, including study abroad, it may also hinder cross-cultural transitions in academic sojourns. This study examines how music (as a form of communication media) may interfere with adaptation to the host culture and readaptation to the home culture. Focus groups and interviews with a total of 23 college students (twelve U.S. students and eleven international students) revealed that music hindered sojourners’ ability to interact in social settings, as well as amplified negative feelings while abroad and during reentry. Participants experienced these temporary side effects in conjunction with (or as part of) their purposeful and functional use of music to escape from the social environment and alleviate negative emotions.