Frontiers in psychology
Social anxiety intervention for college students: the effect of Dancesport exercise prescriptions combined with group psychological counseling
By Yuan M, Jie C, Gong D and 3 others.
Abstract
Objective
This randomized controlled trial (RCT) was designed to evaluate the relative efficacy of a structured dancesport exercise prescription, group psychological counseling, and their combined application in reducing social anxiety symptoms among Chinese university students.
Methods
Forty-eight university students with elevated social anxiety were recruited from the Dancesport Club of Hefei Normal University and randomly allocated to four parallel groups (n = 12 per group): a Dancesport Exercise Prescription group (DP), a Group Psychological counseling group (GC), a Combined Intervention group (DP-GC), and a no-intervention control group. Social anxiety and related psychological symptoms were assessed before and after the 12-week intervention using the Symptom Checklist-90 (SCL-90), the Interaction Anxiousness Scale (IAS), the Social Avoidance and Distress Scale (SAD), and the Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale (LSAS). Group differences over time were examined using a 4 × 2 Group × Time repeated-measures framework, supplemented by adjusted post hoc comparisons, effect-size estimates, and 95% confidence intervals.