The effects of dance activities on self-efficacy, self-esteem, and social skills: A research on hearing impaired individuals

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of dance activity on self-efficacy, self-confidence, and social skills of hearing impaired individuals. For this purpose, studies related to self-efficacy, self-confidence and social skills of disabled people were obtained by literature review. In the second part of the study, an empirical study was performed in Karşıyaka Solidarity Hearing Impaired Society to measure the effects of dance activity. The sample of the study involved a total of 60 hearing-impaired university students who aged 18 and above, consisting both 30 student for control and experimental groups. Participants were selected by voluntary sampling method. Pre-test-post test model was used in the study. Data collection tools were Self Efficacy Scale for Body Language and Dance developed by Özevin-Tokinan and Bilen (2008), Self-Esteem Scale developed by Özevin (2006) and the Social Skill Scale developed by Riggio (1986). SPSS 22.0 package program was used in the analysis of the data. Kolmogorov-Smirnov test, Paired sample T test, and independent sample T test were used. According to the findings of the study, it was determined that the hearing impaired individuals in the experimental group had statistically significant differences between social skills, self-esteem and self-efficacy levels after the dance activity (p <0.05). While there was a significant relationship between social skills, self-esteem and self efficacy levels between the experimental group and the control group (p <0.05) after the dance training, it was concluded that the social skills, self-esteem and self efficacy levels related to the experimental group increased positively. It was also found that self-efficacy, self-esteem and social skills were significantly different in terms of age and gender of heraing impaired individuals (p <0.05).