On Self-Esteem, Need-to-Belong, and Social Ballroom Dancing

Low self-esteemed people face interpersonal challenges: They doubt their value as relational partners and project these doubts on future relations. This study examined the correlation between:ballroom dancers' self-esteem (SE) & their need-to-belong (NTB) and with the number of months/years they have practiced social ballroom dancing (SBD). The recent increased interest in ballroom dancing among internationally diverse populations has not been adequately studied. Very little attention has been dedicated to identifying the possible relational benefits that arise through the practice of SBD. This study was designed to address this gap in the knowledge base in real-life setting among general adult-population. Interestingly, the majority of participants in this study (245 of the 307) reported that ballroom dancing improved their SE. This perception was significantly correlated with participants' SE (p value = .004), that is, participants who held the view that SBD improved their SE, indeed showed higher levels of SE. It is hoped that the findings of this study will spur the scientific and clinical communities to further explore SBD as a resource for studying interpersonal functioning.