title: Early adolescent music preferences and minor delinquency.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To test Music Marker Theory (MMT) positing that early adolescents' preferences for nonmainstream types of popular music indicate concurrent and later minor delinquency.
  
  
  METHODS
  MMT was tested in a 4-year longitudinal study (n = 309).
  
  
  RESULTS
  The results showed that early fans of different types of rock (eg, rock, heavy metal, gothic, punk), African American music (rhythm and blues, hip-hop), and electronic dance music (trance, techno/hardhouse) showed elevated minor delinquency concurrently and longitudinally. Preferring conventional pop (chart pop) or highbrow music (classic music, jazz), in contrast, was not related to or was negatively related to minor delinquency.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Early music preferences emerged as more powerful indicators of later delinquency rather than early delinquency, indicating that music choice is a strong marker of later problem behavior. The mechanisms through which music preferences are linked to minor delinquency are discussed within the framework of MMT.
authors.affiliation: Interdisciplinary Social Sciences, Utrecht University, PO Box 80140, 3508 TC Utrecht, Netherlands. t.f.m.terbogt@uu.nl
authors.forename: Tom F M
authors.initials: TF
authors.lastname: Ter Bogt
authors.forename: Loes
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Keijsers
authors.forename: Wim H J
authors.initials: WH
authors.lastname: Meeus
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000367:Age Factors; D002648:Child; D002755:Choice Behavior; D005260:Female; D033062:Friends / Q000523:psychology; D006801:Humans; D007389:Internal-External Control; D007604:Juvenile Delinquency / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D008960:Models, Psychological; D009146:Music / Q000523:psychology*; D010379:Peer Group; D011582:Psychological Theory; D012307:Risk Factors; D012932:Social Facilitation; D019966:Substance-Related Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires