AI Insight
This study investigated the effects of a 3-month dance therapy intervention on 462 college students using the SCL-90 Symptom Checklist administered before and after the program. Results showed that dance therapy improved mental health outcomes across participants, with post-intervention SCL-90 scores decreasing compared to baseline measurements. Self-efficacy scores increased following the intervention, with male students showing slightly higher average scores (27.85) than female students (26.84).
Why it matters
Dance therapy represents a potentially accessible and cost-effective intervention for addressing mental health concerns in college populations. These findings suggest that incorporating structured dance programs into university wellness initiatives could help improve student self-efficacy and reduce psychological symptoms.
Understand the Science
Cultivating mental health talents is one of the most important goals of education, and some college students have varying degrees of mental health problems. Meanwhile, self-efficacy is an important concept in social cognitive theory and has significant health functions. This paper attempts to investigate the impact of dance therapy on the self-efficacy and mental health of college students. This paper used the SCL-90 Symptom Checklist to evaluate 462 college students twice before and after 3 months of dance exercise, and compared the results before and after the experiment. The experiment found that after 3 months of dance therapy, the average self-efficacy score of boys was 27.85 points, higher than that of girls at 26.84 points. All other scores were lower than the test scores before the experiment, indicating that the mental health of college students has improved after receiving dance therapy.
Source: Effects of dance therapy on self-efficacy and mental health of college students