Building a Sense of Belonging in Dance with Adolescents: A Systematic Review

Abstract

It has been suggested that adolescents’ mental health challenges account for half of the disease burden in the world’s adolescents and young adults. In addition to psychological and medical interventions employed to prevent and treat mental health conditions, programmes such as social prescribing which include arts-based activities like dance, are gaining momentum in countries such as the UK. Evidence shows that such activities can produce positive mental and physical well-being outcomes for individuals with the potential to build a sense of belonging and connection among adolescents. This review aims to collate and synthesise findings of studies that explored building a sense of belonging and/or its features in dance with adolescents. The review was reported based on the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) guidelines. We identified 14 studies that met the inclusion criteria which were used to present a narrative synthesis to address the review questions. The findings show the need for more dance research that directly focuses on and explores the role of dance in building a sense of belonging with adolescents and how a sense of belonging can be facilitated through dance.