Effects of Latin dance exercise on body image and social anxiety in female college students.

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.

RESULTS

Primary baseline-adjusted analyses showed that, compared with the control group, the Latin dance group had lower adjusted post-intervention scores for Overweight Preoccupation, Self-Classified Weight, Social Avoidance, Social Distress, and the Social Avoidance and Distress overall mean score, and higher adjusted scores for Appearance Evaluation, Body Areas Satisfaction, and the aggregate body image index (all p < 0.001, η p 2 = 0.218-0.606). Appearance Orientation did not differ between groups (p = 0.700, η p 2 = 0.002). Secondary Group × Time analyses showed differential changes in Overweight Preoccupation, Self-Classified Weight, Appearance Evaluation, Body Areas Satisfaction, and all three social anxiety measures, but not in Appearance Orientation or the aggregate body image index. The exploratory model yielded a statistically significant indirect effect involving the aggregate body image index (-0.43, bootstrap 95% CI [-0.61, -0.26]), whereas the direct effect was not statistically significant (-0.08, 95% CI [-0.30, 0.13]).

CONCLUSION

Assignment to the Latin dance intervention was associated with lower adjusted post-intervention Overweight Preoccupation and social anxiety scores and higher Appearance Evaluation and Body Areas Satisfaction scores than usual activity. The exploratory indirect effect requires confirmation in larger, rigorously designed studies.