Dance Is for All: A Social Marketing Intervention with Children and Adolescents to Reduce Prejudice towards Boys Who Dance

Abstract

Dance is proven to offer a myriad of physical, psychological, and social benefits. However, because dance has been frequently perceived as a feminine practice, there is a prevailing prejudice towards boys who dance, making it hard for them to engage in this physical activity. Social marketing has been presented as a promising framework to deal with different social problems, including prejudice, although its effectiveness is still difficult to establish. Drawing on the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB), a quasi-experimental study involving a sample of 436 children and adolescents, composed of 51.38% boys and 48.62% girls was implemented to measure the effectiveness of a Social Marketing Intervention (SMI) in reducing prejudice towards dance and boys who dance, in particular, and in increasing their intentions to practice this physical activity. The study furthermore aimed to compare the influence of the SMI on participants of two different stages of child development to ascertain when it is most effective to intervene. The questionnaire was used to collect information and included items derived from relevant literature. To assess differences between children and adolescents before and after the SMI, the analysis relied on independent t-tests and paired t-tests. Results suggest positive effects of the SMI on some dimensions of the TPB.

What does the general population think 'Dance and Health' needs to further develop?

“…There is a wide range of populations targeted for 'dance and health' practice research (the targeted people in dance therapy are not mentioned here). In terms of the age level, there are preschool (Zhou, 2021), adolescent (Silva et al, 2021), adult (Schroeder et al, 2017), middle-aged and older populations (Buransri and Phanpheng, 2021); for the classification of students, like university students (Wright and Layman, 2020). However, regarding gender, most practice programs are not gender-neutral, and there are programs for women's health (Wachirathanin et al, 2021) and very few for men.…”