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Systematic Review
This review was carried out to investigate the relationships between subjective wellbeing (SWB) and taking part in sport and dance for healthy young people (15-24 years)
The strongest evidence (2 RCT studies, judged high quality) surrounds the effect of yoga or Baduanjin-Qigong on improving feelings of anxiety, depression, anger, attention and overall subjective wellbeing. There is also moderate quality evidence to suggest that yoga can improve overall mood (1 study); that empowering young girls through exercise has a positive effect on self-efficacy (1 study); that aerobic and hip-hop dance lead to positive mood enhancement compared to ice-skating and body conditioning (1 study); and that dance training is effective in lowering self-reported depression (1 study).
There is low-moderate quality evidence (1 study) that a peer support exergaming programme can promote group cohesion and positive social reinforcement for taking part in physical activity in overweight young people. There is low quality evidence (1 study) that ensuring positive feelings of competency, relationships with others and autonomy in competitive team sport (volleyball) players improves wellbeing and creates a more positive sport experience.
A small number of evaluation reports were included in the grey literature (n=3). Findings illustrate that depending on activity type and delivery mode, taking part is associated with wellbeing improvements connected to social connectedness, pleasure, sense of purpose, confidence, interpersonal skills, happiness, relaxation, creative skills and expression, aspiration and ambition. Taking part was also associated with negative wellbeing connected to concerns about competency and capability.
There was a high level of detail provided in the grey literature regarding evaluation methods. The strongest reports discussed evaluation approaches and methods of analysis in theoretical detail and acknowledged the limitations of evaluation design. Two studies reported both pre-project and post-project data. Regarding qualitative evaluation, all reports included collected rich data and provided in depth analysis. Data from the surveys tended to be relatively small scale.
Overall, the evidence available in this review suggests that yoga-type activities have the potential to improve subjective wellbeing and that group-based and peer supported sport and dance programmes may promote wellbeing enhancement in youth groups. The evidence in this review provides limited promising findings upon which sport and dance programmes for wellbeing improvement could be developed. The lack of evidence identified in this review does not necessarily mean that wellbeing benefits are not accrued from taking part in sport and dance. There is scope to build evidence on wellbeing outcomes of sport and dance in healthy young people through well-designed, rigorous and appropriate research methods which are underpinned by relevant theory and use established methods of analysis.