THE EFFECT OF MUSIC AS A MOOD BOOSTER ON REDUCING MENTAL BURDEN CAUSED BY ACADEMIC WORKLOAD AMONG GUIDANCE AND COUNSELING STUDENTS AT THE FACULTY OF TEACHER TRAINING AND EDUCATION, PANCASAKTI UNIVERSITY TEGAL

Abstract

This study was motivated by the high academic workload experienced by university students, which has the potential to cause stress, anxiety, and mental burden that affect learning motivation and psychological well-being. One of the alternatives commonly used by students to reduce academic pressure is listening to music. Music functions not only as entertainment but also as a mood booster that can create a more positive emotional state, enhance learning motivation, and reduce stress. This study aimed to determine the ability of music to improve learning motivation and reduce students' stress, identify the most effective music genre as a mood booster, and analyze the effect of music as a mood booster in alleviating students' mental burden caused by excessive academic assignments among students of the Guidance and Counseling Study Program, Faculty of Teacher Training and Education, Pancasakti University of Tegal. This study employed a quantitative approach using a survey research design. The population consisted of 58 eighth-semester students, all of whom were selected as research participants using a saturated sampling technique. Data were collected through questionnaires and documentation and analyzed using IBM SPSS Statistics Version 22, including descriptive analysis, prerequisite tests, simple linear regression, t-test, and F-test. The results showed that 75% of respondents were in the high category regarding the ability of music to increase learning motivation and reduce stress. Pop music was identified as the most effective genre as a mood booster (93.3%), followed by jazz (78.3%), acoustic (55%), and classical music (45%), while rock and DJ music were considered the least effective genres. Statistical analysis revealed a post-test significance value of 0.03 (<0.05), while the F-test produced a significance value of 0.000 with an F-value of 14.159, which was higher than the F-table value of 3.16. These findings indicate that music as a mood booster has a positive and significant effect on reducing students' mental burden caused by academic assignments. Therefore, music can be utilized as a simple and effective strategy to help students maintain their psychological well-being, improve learning motivation, and cope more effectively with academic demands.