The Impact of Dance Interventions on Adolescents' Prosocial Behavior: A Scoping Review

Adolescents are increasingly affected by complex societal challenges that impact their psychosocial development. Prosocial behaviors such as empathy, cooperation, and peer support are critical during this stage and contribute to positive academic, emotional, and social outcomes. While sport has been widely studied in this regard, the potential of dance to foster prosocial behaviors remains underexplored, particularly in educational settings.

This two-phase scoping review followed Arksey and O'Malley's (2005) framework to synthesize evidence on dance interventions for adolescents aged 10-19. Phase one involved a systematic search of empirical and gray literature, yielding 18 studies meeting the inclusion criteria. Phase two comprised semi-structured interviews with seven stakeholders from community dance, education, and policy to contextualize findings, identify gaps, and explore implications for practice and research.

Interventions predominantly lasted 6-12 weeks and involved female participants. Reported outcomes included enhanced empathy, cooperation, emotional expression, and peer connection. Mechanisms such as synchronized movement, shared rhythm, and collaborative choreography facilitated these effects. Challenges included limited engagement of male adolescents, short-term program structures, and inconsistent use of culturally responsive pedagogy, which constrained the developmental impact.

Dance demonstrates substantial potential to cultivate prosocial behaviors and support key aspects of adolescent social and emotional development. Nevertheless, it remains marginalized in intervention research. Future studies should prioritize long-term, inclusive, and culturally grounded programs to clarify how dance contributes to adolescents' developmental trajectories, particularly in empathy, cooperation, identity formation, and peer integration across educational contexts.