Trial reportScientific reports2025
Effects of a 16-week dance intervention on loneliness and self-esteem in left behind children: a randomised controlled trial.
Trial report in Scientific reports, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
3 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- The influence of DanceSport on the mental health of patients with chronic diseases: a systematic review.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Pooled it
- The effects of different types of leisure-time physical activity on positive mental health among adolescents: a mixed-methods systematic review and meta-analysis.The international journal of behavioral nutrition and physical activity · 2025Pooled it
- Understanding the Effectiveness of Mindfulness-based Dance Movement Therapy on Loneliness and Aggression of Underprivileged Children of an NGO.Annals of neurosciences · 2026Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
8 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Loneliness and low self-esteem are among the more prominent mental health problems among left-behind children, but most of the current research stays in cross-sectional surveys, with fewer studies proposing specific solutions. In addition, although the effective impact of dance interventions on loneliness and self-esteem has been demonstrated, the impact in the group of left-behind children remains under-explored. Therefore, this study validated the effectiveness of a dance intervention on loneliness and self-esteem in left-behind children through a 16-week randomised controlled trial. Stratified sampling was used to select one primary school from each of the 14 cities in Hunan Province, with a maximum of 100 children recruited from each primary school. Independent researchers used SPSS 29.0 to randomly assign the eligible 1270 participants to the Experimental group (n = 635) and Control group (n = 635) in a 1:1 ratio. The Experimental group performed 45 min of moderate-intensity dance training five times a week. The Control group maintained their original living conditions. Participants were measured three times using the Children's Loneliness Scale and Rosenberg's Self-Esteem Scale: baseline (T0), after 8 weeks (T1), and post-intervention (16 weeks, T2). Linear mixed-effects models for repeated measures were used to test the effects of time, group and time × group interactions. (a) The average age of the 1261 participants was 10 years (SD = 3.52), with high levels of loneliness (42.48 ± 12.04) and low levels of self-esteem (26.75 ± 6.39). (b) There was a significant negative correlation between loneliness and self-esteem among the LBC (p < 0.001, r = - 0.390). (c) After the dance intervention, the LBC's loneliness significantly decreased [F (2, 1258) = 74.516, η
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.