A Promising Community-Based Hip-Hop Dance Intervention for the Promotion of Psychosocial and Physical Well-being among Youth Living in a Disadvantaged Neighbourhood

(Completed in 2008)

Julie Beaulac -University of Ottawa, Doctoral Stipend 2006

Français

2009 -Knowledge Transfer Paper

Project Summary
This project involved a partnership between the University of Ottawa and three community partners: South-East Ottawa Community Health Centre (SEOCHC), Culture Shock Canada, and Heron Road Community Centre. Prior to implementing a new physical activity program in South-East Ottawa, an initial study sought to better understand the needs, barriers, and facilitators to youth participation in physical activity in order to conceptualize the new intervention. This study determined that the young people and parents were aware of the benefits to youth participation in physical activity but that contextual constraints need to be addressed. The second study of this project consisted of an implementation and outcome evaluation of a new weekly hip-hop dance intervention. The implementation findings demonstrated that the program reached the intended population and provided valuable feedback on the strengths and weaknesses of this new program. The outcome findings were mixed. In general, the quantitative results did not support the program objectives; however, qualitative findings were more positive, and suggested that the hip-hop dance intervention is a promising program for the promotion of youth well-being.

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2008

Young people from low socio-economic, minority, and other disadvantaged groups tend to be less physically active and to have poorer health. With this in mind, a community-academic partnership was formed to respond to the need for more physical activity programming targeting disadvantaged young people. The purpose of this doctoral thesis was to investigate the implementation and perceived impact of a new hip-hop dance program on the psychological, social, and physical well-being of youth aged 11 to 16 years living in a multicultural, disadvantaged community in Ottawa.

An initial study sought to better understand the needs, barriers, and facilitators to youth participation in physical activity in order to conceptualize the new program. This first study involved three focus groups with young people and parents from the target community. Findings suggested a need for more physical activity programming that was safe, accessible, age-appropriate, and culturally relevant. Hip-hop dance was reported as an appealing program option and thus, girls-only and co-ed formats of the program were implemented across two separate 3-month sessions, with funding from United Way Ottawa.

The second study of this thesis was an implementation and outcome evaluation of the new program, which involved a pretest-posttest design from the perspective of the youth participant, parent, and program staff. Mixed methods were used, including document review, interview, focus group, observation, and questionnaire format. Overall, the consistency and quality of program implementation were moderately satisfactory; however, important concerns were noted, and the findings suggested that this program was only partially delivered as planned. In terms of the impact of the intervention, quantitatively, there was a significant improvement in perceived hip-hop dance skills. The qualitative findings were more promising, showing positive perceived impacts across eight areas of well-being. Overall, the findings suggested that this intervention is a promising and relevant program for the promotion of youth psychological, social, and physical well-being, particularly if implementation concerns are addressed. A significant implication of this research is the importance of considering environmental factors when planning and implementing physical activity interventions. In addition, community input should be sought prior to implementing new interventions in order to increase their effectiveness and sustainability.

2007

Youth from low socio-economic, minority, and other underprivileged groups tend to be less
physically active and to have poorer health. With this in mind, a community-academic
partnership was formed to respond to the need for more physical activity programming targeting underprivileged youth.

The first project objective related to planning the implementation of a new physical activity
program. Specifically, study one sought to better understand the needs, barriers, and facilitators to youth participation in physical activity, from the perspective of youth and parents within the target poorer, multicultural, and underprivileged Ottawa community. The second and third objectives related to the evaluation of the new United Ottawa funded hip-hop dance program. The process objective was to assess the extent to which a new physical activity program was implemented as planned. In addition, the outcome objective was to assess the extent to which the program resulted in improved psychosocial and physical well-being.

Three focus groups were conducted with youth and parents from the target community in the
planning phase of this project. The evaluation of the implementation and outcome of the new
hip-hop program involved a non-experimental pretest-posttest design, from the perspective of
youth participant, parent, and program staff. Mixed methods were used including interview,
focus group, observation, and questionnaire format.

Findings suggested a need for more physical activity programming that was safe, accessible,
and age and culturally relevant. In addition, the newly implemented program was demonstrated as one potentially effective and relevant physical activity program for underprivileged youth.

Community input should be sought prior to implementing new programs in order to increase
effectiveness and sustainability. In addition, in order to reduce health inequalities it is critical that policies aiming to increase participation in physical activity consider social, cultural and
structural factors, in addition to individual-level factors.

SCRI 2007 Presentation Slides

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