Examination of well-being levels of individuals participating in recreational dance activities

The aim of this research is to examine the well-being levels achieved by people who participate in dance activities in their free time and to compare these levels within the framework of certain demographic characteristics. The population of the study consisted of university students who had never participated in recreational dance activities before, while the representative sample group was selected from the students studying at Trakya University based on random sampling method, and a total of 68 volunteer students, 34 males and 34 females, were brought together for the study. In the scope of the research, a form containing personal information and the "New Well-being Scale" developed by VanderWeele (2017), called the "New Florishing Index", and the Turkish version of which was validated and reliable by Alkan (2022) were used for data collection. Cronbach Alpha coefficient was calculated to determine the reliability of the scale. In data analysis, independent sample T-test was used for comparing independent dyadic groups, dependent sample T-test was used for comparing dependent dyadic groups, and two-factor ANOVA was used in repeated measures for analyzing group and time interaction. ANCOVA analysis was used to compare the well-being scale and subscale scores between the experimental and control groups. Based on the findings, the relationship between the participants' participation in recreational dance activities and the increase in well-being level was found to be high (p<0.01) and differentiated according to demographic variables (p<0.0160). . The total mean scores of the well-being scale of individuals who participate in weekly dance activities (mean: 80.32) compared to those who do not participate (mean: 74.18) are significantly higher. As a result, we found a meaningful distinction between individuals involved in dance activities for recreational purposes and individuals not involved in any of the activities in terms of well-being levels. While the individuals that participated to activities demonstrated a substantial increase and improvement on the dimensions of "happiness and life satisfaction, mental and physical health, life purpose and meaning, close social relationships, and financial and material situation", this situation was not stable in the control group and showed a tendency towards decrease. According to these results, it can be concluded that recreational dance activities provide improvement and protection in the well-being of individuals.