The impact of dance choreography integrated with dance movement therapy on university students’ mental health and gender differences: a cross-cultural perspective

This cluster quasi-experimental study explores intervention effects of dance choreography adapted from five canonical DMT clinical frameworks on self-reported mental distress among 200 non-dance undergraduates from five geographically representative Chinese universities. Five tailored dance works were developed by translating DMT core tenets into non-clinical educational formats, delivered as a 5-month standardised intervention (two 90-minute sessions weekly). The Chinese-validated SCL-90 served as the primary outcome, analysed via paired-samples t-tests, one-way ANCOVA, and independent-samples t-tests. Results reveal significant small-to-moderate reductions in seven SCL-90 dimensions, with heterogeneous effects across models and consistent gender response patterns. Crucially, improvements reflect self-perceived distress relief rather than clinical remission. This study provides tentative cross-cultural evidence for DMT-informed choreography as a low-barrier mental health promotion tool, offering tiered, context-adaptable references for global higher education.