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Updated: May 15, 2026

Driving Under the Influence: How Music Listening Affects Driving Behaviors
Published on: March 27, 2019
Early adolescent music preferences and minor delinquency
Tom F M Ter Bogt1, Loes Keijsers, Wim H J Meeus
1Interdisciplinary Social Sciences, Utrecht University, PO Box 80140, 3508 TC Utrecht, Netherlands. t.f.m.terbogt@uu.nl
Objectives:
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.
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