Determination of the effect of music listening application on coping with stress and anger levels in elderly living in nuring homes

This study was conducted as a pre-test and post-test patterned intervention study to determine the effect of music listening application on coping with stress and anger levels in elderly living in nursing homes. The sample of the study consists of 55 elderly individuals living in Alparslan Türkeş Nursing Home, affiliated to the Ministry of Labor, Social Services and Family of Republic of Turkey, Yozgat Provincial Directorate of Family, Labor and Social Services. The data were collected with Sociodemographic Data Collection Form, Anger Expression and Anger Expression Style Scale (STAI) and Stress Coping Scale to determine anger expression and anger expression style. IBM SPSS Statistics 21.0 program, number, percentage, frequency, median, Wilcoxon test, Mann Whitney U test, Kruskal Wallis test were used for data analysis. As a result of the comparison made for the "Coping with stress grup subscales" of the elderly participants, it was found that the scores differed significantly before and after music application in all subgroups (p<0.001). While "self-confident approach", "optimistic approach" and "seeking social support" scores increased after the application; Scores of "insecure approach" and "submissive approach" decreased. While the scores of "trait anger", "anger-in" and "anger-out" decreased after application, "anger control" scores increased significantly (p <0.001). As a result, music can be applied as an independent nursing practice in order to benefit from the relaxing effect of music to the elderly individuals staying in nursing homes to cope with stress and reduce the anger expression. Keywords: Anger control, anger expression, coping with stress, elderly, nurse