Building a Sense of Belonging in Dance with Adolescents: A Systematic Review

Reviewers’ comments

Authors’ responses

Reviewer 1

The manuscript is very well written in all its stages. The literature is relevant, the concepts or constructs are well presented and their respective definitions are very well discussed and accompanied by important literature in the area.

I also understand that the collection of studies submitted to systematic analysis was very careful. Very important, in the introduction, is the valuable recovery that the authors made of Maslow's writings, especially on the hierarchy of basic human needs. It was relevant to bring associations of this theoretical conception established in the 40s, with the current context, especially showing its relevance in the dance process and its psychological property of creating a context of belonging.

 I really appreciated the discussion about the construction of belonging initially discussed by Maslow and later by many others. I understand that the systematic review achieved all the proposed objectives, particularly suggesting that dance, as a physical-psychological intervention, enriches and improves the sense of belonging in young adolescents. The work is complete and I understand that it could be an important contribution to the area of mental health, as well as the resurrection of Maslow's theory.

Thank you so much for these comments and feedback.

Reviewers’ comments

Authors’ responses

Reviewer 2

This is a very rigorous systematic review to investigate relevant literature regarding the role of dance in building sense of belonging in adolescents.

 It provides responses to several specific research questions. The subjective well -being and sense of belonging are promoted by dance in adolescents by means of self-esteem, teamwork, body-attitudes, among others.    

The study has been performed following the internationally adopted PRISMA guidelines, Besides there has been applied robust bias control. The design and methodology are clearly presented in details to allow replication. Results are meticulously reported and interpreted in the context of other studies. The contribution is meaningful for the field of mental health and deserves to be published in its current form.    

I do not detect any major issues.  

One minor (optional) recommendation would be to expand the discussion by including few more considerations about music therapy in general as an overall framework of bechaftigungstherapie and possible intervention strategy for early prevention in at-risk-mental-states.

Thank you so much for these comments and feedback.

We believe that the optional recommendation made is beyond the scope of the systematic review and will be best addressed in a different paper within the contexts of the Arts and/or Music specific interventions for mental health.

Reviewers’ comments

Authors’ responses

Reviewer 3

Thank you for this very interesting manuscript that I think will be an interesting addition to the literature. There has definitely been an increase in mental health concerns in adolescents, and this is a unique way to address these concerns.

The following are my comments, thoughts, questions, and/or suggestions. In addition to these, please review again carefully for missing commas, typos, correct punctuation, etc.

Thank you very much.

Thanks. I believe these have now been addressed – proofreading completed by colleague fluent in English writing.

Please double check throughout the manuscript as many times when you have a list of citations your list does not always appear in numerical order.

This is because of the type of referencing and citation style the publisher/journal required:: https://www.mdpi.com/authors/references

We have also produced the manuscript using the Journal’s template.

Line 51 – would “body” be the same as “physical”? I’m just wondering because physical would be a better grammatical fit.

This has been changed to ‘physical’

Lines 70 and 73 – not being from the UK, would you please clarify your use of the word “schemes”? To me, a scheme is something devious, but I don’t believe that you intended it this way, so I am guessing that it is used differently in the UK?

Scheme is a plan or programme of action - for universal clarity, I have changed this to ‘programme’

Line 94 – (for example) – I noticed that you have done this throughout the manuscript, but instead of writing “[37]’s review” you should cite the author’s name and year of publication. Please double check all of these throughout and double check them with the editor as well. Authors should be credited with their work and readers shouldn’t have to refer to the references to see to whom you are specifically referring or quoting. I found it especially hard to read, for example at line 106 when it occurs at the beginning of a sentence: “[34] presents three…”

This is because we have used the citation guide requested by the journal, this is in line with their referencing and citation guide: https://www.mdpi.com/authors/references

We have also produced the manuscript using the Journal’s template.

Line 93 or 138 – another thing to check with the editor is where you have written “[e.g., 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36]” or “[i.e., 44, 57, 58]”. This has also occurred several times throughout the manuscript, and I am not sure that it is appropriate to list citations this way. In addition, you went back and forth between i.e. and e.g. so if it is determined that it is okay to provide citations this way you would at least want to be consistent.

For consistency all “i.e.,” have been replaced with “e.g.,”

Line 114 – I do not think that “[see 42]” is the correct way to provide a citation here.

This is because we have used the citation guide requested by the journal, this is in line with their referencing and citation guide: https://www.mdpi.com/authors/references

We have also produced the manuscript using the Journal’s template.

Lines 158-159 – please clarify this sentence as it seems a word is missing: “…this review’s aim: which is to collate and synthesise findings of studies conducted to date, that explore building a sense of belonging dance with adolescents.”

‘through’ added

Line 165 – please double check as I think “guidance” is supposed to be “guidelines”.

‘guidelines’ now added.

Good inclusion and exclusion criteria. I like that you included this not only in the narrative but also in table form.

I think it’s great that you not only utilized database searches but that you also conducted hand-searches from the reference lists of 18 reviews. You were definitely quite thorough!

Thank you.

Line 289 – is “Self-esteem inventory form” the name of a specific test/questionnaire? If so, please capitalize the full name.

Yes, thanks now edited.

Table 3 – please look check for spacing issues (although perhaps this is because of how it was downloaded), as well as typos. Otherwise, this is a very helpful table. Also be consistent with capitalization in headings of the table.

Now capitalised.

Table 4 – be consistent with capitalization in the title of the table. Consider making the headings of the table bold so they stand out. Also be consistent with capitalization in headings of the table. Similarly to Table 3, check on the spacing issues and column sizes as they make it difficult to read the table. Again, this may just be due to how everything downloaded.

Now capitalised and bolded. Template provided by Journal was used, formatting of tables will be checked by the journal before publishing as this is possibly due to download.

Line 318 – is there a reason “School” is capitalized?

No, changed to “school”.

Paragraph beginning with line 319 – several words are randomly capitalized that done seem like they should be. Also, this paragraph is only one sentence long as is the one above it. Can they be combined to form one paragraph since paragraphs should ideally be made up of more than 2-3 sentences?

Now combined.

Line 327 – please clarify this sentence: “[81] contemporary dance interventions were found to have provided participants with…” It is confusing having the citation at the front of the sentence like this without it listing the author’s name.

This is because we have used the citation guide requested by the journal, this is in line with their referencing and citation guide: https://www.mdpi.com/authors/references

We have also produced the manuscript using the Journal’s template. I have however moved [81] and [85] to the end of the sentences.

Line 359 – Capitalize the first word of the sentence

Thanks, now done.

Line 397 -  do you mean “a sense of belonging”?

Yes, now amended, thanks.

Please be consistent with how references are written, double checking correct format.

We have used the citation guide requested by the journal, this is in line with their referencing and citation guide: https://www.mdpi.com/authors/references

We have also produced the manuscript using the Journal’s template.

Reviewers’ comments

Authors’ responses

Reviewer 4

This is a straightforward review of studies on dance in disciplines related to social determinants of health. It aims to "collate and synthesise findings of studies conducted to date, that explore building a sense of belonging [through] dance with adolescents" (p. 4 lines 158-159; remember to add "through" in revisions). The review narrows down the studies to be examined using the PRISMA checklist, and comes up with 14 studies that met the criteria for inclusion. The authors are explicit and transparent about how they chose the studies to be examined more closely, and their methods are sound. This review concludes that a group of studies exists that demonstrate that a sense of belonging in dance among adolescents has a positive impact on their mental health and wellbeing; a useful conclusion for others aiming to conduct studies on similar questions. The authors also note that the existing studies have primarily examined white populations, so there is a need to expand similar research to more demographic groups. All in all, this is a useful review that will be welcomed by scholars looking for evidence for dance's importance in creating a sense of belonging among adolescents, and that sense of belonging's significance for these adolescents' wellbeing. 

I have a few small recommendations:

Thank you very much.

Structure:
The introduction is a classic funnel introduction. But, if we haven't read the abstract and are jumping right in to read the introduction, it takes a while to figure out what exactly this article is about. Starting with a sentence that asserts the point of the article, and then going through the same funnel introduction, will help readers understand the article more quickly. It may seem repetitive after the title and abstract, but it will save a ton of time in explaining to undergraduate readers, for example, what this article is about. 

This line has been added at the start of the introduction: This systematic review aims to gather findings of studies that explored building a sense of belonging in dance with adolescents.

Layout:

- Left-justify all text in Table 3 for ease of reading. Include table cell borders if the journal allows; this is a long table in which text could easily get mixed up without more visual guides. Also, it might be good to change this table's text size to a smaller size if the journal allows. 

Note: my discipline is anthropology/performance studies rather than psychology, and there may be more discipline-specific things that may deserve comment, but I am not the one to make those comments. But this review is clear to someone outside the discipline, which is definitely a strong point.

Thanks. This has been formatted in line with the Journal’s template, but I will leave it for the journal to decide when they complete the final formatting.

That’s great to hear, thank you!

Comments on the Quality of English Language:

There are typos as there would be in most manuscripts; the use of the language itself is fine. I suggest a copy editor be employed if the journal does not do its own copy edits.

Thanks. I believe these have now been addressed – proofreading completed by colleague fluent in English writing.

Reviewers’ comments

Authors’ responses

Reviewer 5

Dear authors,

Thank you for the opportunity to review the manuscript "Building a Sense of Belonging in Dance with Adolescents: A Systematic Review”. The systematic review examines the question of whether and how dance interventions can strengthen a sense of belonging in adolescents. To answer the research questions, a systematic literature search was carried out in various databases in accordance with the PRISMA guidelines. The PRISMA guidelines were well implemented.  

The literature search includes several databases and the inclusion and exclusion criteria are transparent and comprehensible. The literature search and screening of the abstracts and later the full texts showed that the studies found, which followed different methodological approaches and were classified as being of high quality, established positive correlations between dance interventions and the sense of belonging (5 studies), or related constructs (9 studies). The results are clearly presented and well summarized. The discussion summarizes the findings again with regard to the research questions and the theoretical background.  This is a thoroughly successful systematic Review for which I would suggest only minor changes:    

Thank you very much.

The reference to mental health, which is made at the beginning of the study as an introduction, could be taken up at the end (in the discussion or in the conclusion).  

Ok, now added briefly added as Line 421-423.

However, the PRISMA scheme states that studies relating to self-perception etc. were excluded. In the discussion, however, these aspects are mentioned as results of five of the reviewed studies. This is somewhat confusing.  

Self-esteem OR Self-perception was one of the many search terms used for ‘belonging’ this is stated in Table 1. The studies that focused on body image did not do so in the context of a sense of belonging but in the context of personality traits and in the wider context of ‘pathogenesis of eating disorders. This has now been clarified in line 264.

The limitations could be extended to the language, and reference could also be made to how gray literature or congress contributions and dissertations were dealt with.  

We noted the limitation in the context of only including papers written in the English language - lines 442-444.

Line 198 - our inclusion and exclusion criteria we stated that “...grey literature, were excluded”. I have now added the implication of this in the limitation section, Lines 456-457. Thanks.

It is often not possible to directly include or exclude studies based on the titles and abstracts. How were such studies dealt with? 

For studies where eligibility could not be determined based on the title and/or abstract alone, these remained in the Excel sheet for full text review to avoid selection bias.

I have added this to the main document now, lines 221-223.

The last paragraph before the limitations already gives an outlook on future research and could possibly be moved to the conclusion.

Now moved to the conclusion, Lines 478-479.

Reviewers’ comments

Authors’ responses

Reviewer 6

Dear Editor and Author,

I have carefully read this systematic review exploring adolescents' sense of belonging through dance. The study has important implications for understanding adolescent mental health and arts interventions. To further enhance the academic quality of the article and the reader's experience, I have the following suggestions:

Thanks very much.

Introduction: It is recommended that the authors streamline the discussion of the concept of "adolescents" to avoid length. They should focus more on the research question of how dance enhances adolescents' sense of belonging and identify the novelty and potential contribution of this review in relation to the existing literature.

The current word count of the article, excluding the tables and Abstract, is approximately 5,359. We believe that this discussion is paramount given that the scope and focus of the journal is on adolescents and also because this will provide some background information for wider and non-academic audiences who are not within the field of adolescent studies.

We believe these have been addressed by the search and presented in the results and discussion section. We also dedicate Lines 133 – 157 giving some context in relation to what other dance literature present in relation to the outcome of dance on individuals, this helped to further highlight the gap in relation to our research aim and questions. Because this is a systematic review and the aim of the review is to ascertain “on the research question of how dance enhances adolescents' sense of belonging and identify the novelty and potential contribution of this review in relation to the existing literature.”   This needed to be addressed based on the systematic review search findings (in the results and discussion sections), as such we could not have discussed this in the introduction section when we have not yet carried out the review by that stage.

Materials and Methods: While the authors provide an overview of the search strategy, it is recommended that further detail be provided on the process of constructing the search statements, including the Boolean operators used and search restrictions.

In addition, specific criteria and mechanisms for resolving disagreements during the screening process should be described to increase the transparency of the research methodology.

Ok, now elaborated, see Lines 179-185.

Discussions were in line with inclusion and exclusion criteria set. This has been added to line 226.

Results: It is recommended that authors demonstrate more clearly in the results section the process of narrative synthesis, especially how patterns were identified, how results from different studies were compared, and how heterogeneity between studies was handled. This will help the reader to understand more deeply the basis for synthesizing the results.

This is what 254-260 describes in line with these citations [67], and [68]:

“The heterogeneity of the included studies was organised and explored by looking for similarities, patterns or differences in the findings of the included studies (e.g., based on factors such as dance style, age group, gender, etc). Studies were grouped systematically based on common characteristics such as populations, type of dance interventions, and common outcomes related to building a sense of belonging in dance with adolescents”

Discussion: It is recommended that the authors utilize the theoretical framework to explain the results of the study in more depth and to explore the specific implications of these results for practical applications.

The concept of belonging is discussed in the discussion section –e.g., lines 409-410; 429 – 432. We have also added the below to lines 480-484:

Future research could include a quantitative questionnaire focused on facets of sense of belonging with adolescent dancers and/or a grounded theory approach to develop a conceptual framework and theory in relation to developing a dance teaching and learning environment that facilitates a sense of belonging with and for adolescent dancers.