Frontiers in psychology
Effects of Latin dance exercise on body image and social anxiety in female college students
By Wang L, Li Z, Liu Y and 1 others.
Abstract
Background
Latin dance combines bodily expression with social interaction and may influence body image and social anxiety, but randomized controlled evidence remains limited. This study evaluated a 10-week Latin dance exercise intervention and examined an exploratory statistical indirect effect involving an aggregate body image index among female college students.
Methods
Of 103 students recruited, 88 eligible participants were randomly allocated 1:1 to the Latin dance or usual-activity control group (n = 44 each). Body image and social anxiety were assessed at baseline and immediately after the intervention using five appearance-related subscales of the Chinese Multidimensional Body-Self Relations Questionnaire and the Social Avoidance and Distress Scale, respectively. Primary analyses of covariance evaluated post-intervention group differences after adjustment for the corresponding baseline scores. Secondary mixed-design analyses of variance examined Group × Time differences, and a baseline-adjusted PROCESS Model 4 with 5,000 bootstrap resamples estimated the exploratory statistical indirect effect.