Abstract
This study aims to examine the effects of three intervention approaches—Latin dance intervention alone, mindfulness intervention alone, and a combined mindfulness–Latin dance intervention—on social anxiety among left-behind adolescents in rural China. A randomized controlled trial was conducted with 84 participants(age = 10.90 ± 3.05) assigned to four groups: a Latin dance-only group, a mindfulness-only group, a combined Latin dance and mindfulness group, and a control group. The intervention lasted 12 weeks. Social anxiety was assessed at baseline, post-intervention, and at a 6-week follow-up. Data were analyzed using repeated measures ANOVA. Significant reductions in social anxiety were observed over time in all three intervention groups (F(3, 80) = 15.42, p < 0.001), with no significant change in the control group (p > 0.05). The combined intervention group showed the greatest improvement, and treatment effects were maintained at follow-up. Combined intervention produced the most substantial and sustained reductions in social anxiety, whereas Latin dance led to rapid but less durable improvements and mindfulness yielded modest but stable effects. These findings suggest that integrating body-based and cognitive-emotional approaches may represent a superior strategy for enhancing both the effectiveness and maintenance of social anxiety interventions in left-behind adolescents.
Data availability
Research data will be available from the corresponding author with a reasonable request.
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Funding
This research was funded by The National Educational Science Planning Project of China (Grant Number BLA230102).
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X.D. and Q.Y. contributed equally to the conceptualization, methodology, data collection, and original draft preparation. C.L. and Y.S. provided supervision, contributed to data interpretation, and were responsible for reviewing and editing the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
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Ding, X., Yang, Q., Sun, Y. et al. Effects of dance mindfulness and combined interventions on social anxiety in left behind rural adolescents: a randomized controlled trial. Sci Rep (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-026-35039-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-026-35039-x
