Association between music use and depression among college students: The moderating roles of regulatory emotional self-efficacy and gender.

Music is a prevalent tool for alleviating depression among college students, yet its effects exhibit individual and gender variability. This study examined differential associations between healthy/unhealthy music use and depression severity among Chinese college students while investigating regulatory emotional self-efficacy (RESE) as a moderator and exploring three-way interactions with gender. Utilizing a cross-sectional design, we recruited 16,588 participants (55% male, M = 19.82 years, SD = 1.77) through convenience sampling. Standardized measures included the Healthy-Unhealthy Music Scale, the Regulatory Emotional Self-Efficacy Scale, and the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 scale. Results revealed: (a) healthy music use negatively correlated with depression, whereas unhealthy music use showed a positive association; (b) RESE exhibited divergent moderating effects: high RESE weakened the health benefits of healthy music, while low RESE predicted maladaptive outcomes; unhealthy music use exhibited significant depressive risks in both high-RESE and low-RESE subgroups; and (c) a significant three-way interaction emerged, indicating that males with low RESE derived diminished mental health benefits from healthy music engagement compared to females with equivalent RESE levels. No gender-RESE interaction was observed for unhealthy music use. These findings underscore RESE's critical role in moderating music-related mental health outcomes, particularly highlighting gender-specific vulnerability patterns in ostensibly adaptive music engagement.