The relationship between the constructs of rap music, self-esteem, and self-efficacy

Abstract

There are a host of potentially adverse behaviors in which youth engage, which have important implications for both their well being as youth and their life prospects. The past decade has seen dramatic shifts in the intensity with which youth pursue these activities. Adolescents, like adults, may be prone to engaging in behavior that may be harmful to them due to personal invulnerability and their tendency to focus on the immediate, rather than long-term, consequences of their behavior (Dixon & Brooks, Rap music and rap audiences: Controversial themes, psychological effects and political resistance, 2002). This research study explored the relationships between the constructs of rap music as defined by the RAP scale (Tyson, The rap music attitude and perception (RAP) scale: Scale Development and preliminary analysis of psychometric properties, 2005), self esteem, and self-efficacy. At the conclusion of the study, the researcher found that self esteem was not a significant predictor of students’ violent-misogynistic scale scores, self efficacy was not a significant predictor of students’ empowerment scores and, finally, self-efficacy was a significant predictor of students’ artistic-esthetic scale scores. These results indicate that students with higher self-efficacy tend to be less critical of the artistic-esthetic constructs of rap music.