Tailored Ecological Momentary Music Intervention for Stress Reduction

Ethnic discrimination is associated with mental and physical health impairments. In view of the negative impact of discrimination on health, it is of great importance to investigate interventions to counteract these negative effects. Based on findings of a pilot study (clinicaltrials.gov identifier: NCT04957966), this study investigates the effectiveness of a tailored ecological momentary music intervention to reduce biological (salivary cortisol, salivary alpha-amylase) and psychological (perceived stress, perceived ethnic discrimination) stress reactions after discriminatory and/or stressful events in the daily life of Turkish immigrant women (N = 50, age range 18-65 years). An intra-individually randomized design will be used, i.e., participants will be assigned on a random basis either to intervention events (they can choose to listen to music for the duration of 10 or 20 minutes) or to control events (participants are instructed to not listen to music). The whole study period consists of 35 days with a baseline period (week 1), intervention period (week 2-4), and post period (week 5).