Children of South Asian-Origin Parents in the Diaspora: Dance, Resilience, and Prosociality

Abstract

ABSTRACT Diaspora children of South Asian-origin immigrant parents experience issues of acculturation, identity concerns and general wellbeing that influence their psychosocial development. Within the domain of culturally-attuned interventions for immigrant children, art forms are gaining prominence. This article reports a study on the impact of customized dance lessons for children (aged 10–13-years) of South Asian-origin parents in the diaspora on resilience and prosocial behaviors, compared to a waitlist control group. The dance lessons were effective and female children, participants whose primary caregivers had postgraduate or professional degrees, who were familiar with at least one language other than English, who attended 21–40 (>50%) dance lessons, and who completed 21–40 (>50%) dance homework lessons, gained more on resilience and prosociality outcomes. The need for promotive and preventive psychosocial interventions for immigrant children, and particularly those from low- and middle-income or crisis-prone geographies to high-income destination lands, is highlighted.