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ABSTRACT
This study examined the impact of an in-school dance curriculum on the social-emotional development of at-risk preschoolers in a southern California public preschool program. The preschoolers (N = 69) participated in dance for thirty minutes, once a week, over an entire academic year. We compared the Desired Results Developmental Profile (DRDP) scores in the Social-Emotional domain from Fall 2018 to Spring 2019 and controlled for dance by analyzing scores from four sites who received dance and two sites who did not receive any dance. Our findings included an increase in preschoolers’ DRDP scores in the category of Integrating Social-Emotional Skills among those sites who received dance versus sites who did not receive dance. There were no significant changes among scores in the category of Building-Later. Through this study, dance was shown to support preschoolers’ ability to integrate and build social-emotional skills, strengthen their self-identity, and establish meaningful relationships with peers and adults.