Shared digital music streaming and parent-adolescent communication: evidence from Turkish Cypriot adolescents

The rapid expansion of online music streaming platforms has transformed adolescents' everyday media practices, making music consumption increasingly individualized, algorithmically curated, and socially networked. While existing scholarship has established the importance of music in adolescent identity formation and emotional regulation, considerably less attention has been devoted to understanding how digitally mediated music listening influences communication within families. As digital-native adolescents increasingly consume music through platforms such as Spotify and YouTube, parents-many of whom remain digital immigrants-face new opportunities and challenges in maintaining meaningful communication with their children. This study investigates whether shared digital music listening constitutes a communicative practice capable of strengthening parent-adolescent relationships. Rather than examining music consumption solely as an individual behavior, the study conceptualizes shared streaming experiences as an interactional process through which emotional exchange, cultural identity, and intergenerational understanding are negotiated.

Drawing upon a mixed-methods dataset comprising 500 Turkish Cypriot adolescents aged 14-17 (400 quantitative; 100 qualitative), the study integrates responses from a 22-item Music Listening Habits Questionnaire, the Parent-Adolescent Communication Scale (PACS), and qualitative relational content analysis. Pearson correlation analysis was employed to examine associations between shared music listening practices and communication quality, while qualitative coding explored participants' perceptions of family music experiences.

Quantitative findings demonstrate a statistically significant moderate positive relationship between the frequency of shared music listening with parents and parent-adolescent communication quality (r = 0.455, p < 0.01). Qualitative evidence further indicates that shared listening to culturally meaningful Turkish Cypriot music facilitates emotional openness, mutual understanding, and constructive family conversations. Although adolescents predominantly accessed music through Spotify and YouTube, the communicative value of music depended less on platform choice than on opportunities for shared engagement and discussion.

The study advances Uses and Gratifications Theory by extending its application from individual media gratification toward shared family media practices. It proposes that digital music streaming can function as an intergenerational communication resource capable of narrowing the communicative divide between digital-native adolescents and digital-immigrant parents. By integrating media studies, communication research, and music psychology, the article offers a culturally grounded framework for understanding how shared digital listening contributes to healthier family relationships in contemporary media environments.