Benefits of an online group dance program for adolescents' social bonding and wellbeing

Tunçgenç, B ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1135-1004, Greig, E and Cohen, E, 2024. Benefits of an online group dance program for adolescents' social bonding and wellbeing. Journal of Adolescence, 96 (8), pp. 1917-1928. ISSN 0140-1971

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Abstract

Introduction: The Covid-19 pandemic and its ensuing effects on mental health made it clearer than ever that social bonds are critical for survival, flourishing, and mental wellbeing. Experimental laboratory-based research with children and adults shows that activities involving movement alignment and joint action, such as dance, can facilitate social bonds.

Methods: This study examined whether an online group dance intervention positively affects social bonding and wellbeing using a randomized control design. Participants were 58 UK adolescents aged 11–16 years (N = 52 girls, 75% White, 7% Asian/Asian British, 18% Mixed-Other), randomly assigned to an online intervention or waitlist control group. Participants in the intervention group completed an online 5-week hip-hop dance program during the Covid-19 pandemic in January to February 2021. Measures of social bonding, wellbeing, and future orientation were taken at the beginning and end of the program.

Results: Linear mixed model analyses examining group × timepoint interaction showed greater increase in social bonding (p < .0001), and wellbeing (p < .0001) in the intervention vs control group. Moreover, increases in bonding significantly predicted increases in wellbeing (p < .0001), and increases in bonding (p = .03) and wellbeing (p = .0002) significantly predicted increases in the adolescents' hope for the future.

Conclusions: These data, collected at a time of mass social isolation, show that a 5-week-long online dance activity can help adolescents forge stronger social bonds, and improve their wellbeing and future orientation. Our findings suggest that the wellbeing and future orientation benefits of group dance may stem from having stronger social connectedness, opening up avenues for future research and interventions.

Item Type:	Journal article
Publication Title:	Journal of Adolescence
Creators:	Tunçgenç, B., Greig, E. and Cohen, E.
Publisher:	Wiley
Date:	December 2024
Volume:	96
Number:	8
ISSN:	0140-1971
Identifiers:	Number Type 10.1002/jad.12391 DOI 2335906 Other
Rights:	© 2024 The Author(s). Journal of Adolescence published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Foundation for Professionals in Services to Adolescents. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Divisions:	Schools > School of Social Sciences
Record created by:	Laura Borcherds
Date Added:	10 Jan 2025 09:11
Last Modified:	10 Jan 2025 09:11
URI:	https://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/52830

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