The Culture of Vocational Dance Training and its Effect on Dancers' Mental Health and Well-being

文化是指人们如何参与群体的规范（Blevins et al., 2020），是各种运动员成绩的重要因素。表现和心理健康是被确定为受团体或体育组织文化影响的一些潜在结果（Fletcher & Wagstaff, 2009）。因此，重要的是相应地管理运动员训练的文化，以促进他们的经历和发展（Wagstaff & Burton-Wylie, 2018）。需要考虑文化的一个背景是职业舞蹈培训。人们对这种背景下的文化内涵知之甚少。最近的一项研究（Blevins et al., 2020）发现，澳大利亚职业舞蹈培训中的文化支持损伤正常化，并推动疼痛和疲劳，这可能导致更大的压力和更差的心理健康和福祉。其他研究表明，竞争激烈的舞者所经历的文化要求持续的巅峰表现、高度的承诺、频繁的人际冲突（Schmitt, 2019）和舞者的身体（即高、瘦、瘦）。这种类型的文化被认为会导致特质焦虑和担忧（Carr & Wyon, 2003）。为了更好地了解英国职业舞蹈课程培训文化的特点，需要进行研究。本博士的目的是调查英国职业舞蹈机构的文化及其对年轻职业舞者心理健康和福祉的影响。通过使用定性和定量方法，该项目将探讨两个具体的研究问题：1)职业舞蹈学生所经历的职业舞蹈培训文化的主要特征是什么？2)职业舞蹈训练文化如何影响舞者的心理健康和心理幸福感？这项新颖的研究将通过深入了解职业舞蹈学生在训练过程中所处的文化，对现有文献做出贡献。这将使舞蹈教练和教师了解他们创造的舞蹈文化如何影响年轻舞者的心理健康和心理健康，以及他们应该旨在实施的文化类型，以促进更好的心理健康和福祉。

Culture, which refers to the norms of how people participate within a group (Blevins et al., 2020) is an important contributor to various athlete outcomes. Performance and mental well-being are some of the potential outcomes that have been identified as being affected by the culture of a group or sport organisation (Fletcher & Wagstaff, 2009). Therefore, it is important that the culture in which athletes train is managed accordingly to facilitate their experiences and development (Wagstaff & Burton-Wylie, 2018). A context where the culture needs to be considered is vocational dance training. Little is known about what the culture of this context entails. A recent study (Blevins et al., 2020) identified that the culture in Australian vocational dance training endorsed normalisation of injury and pushing through pain and fatigue, which could lead to greater stress and poorer mental health and well-being. Other studies have shown that competitive dancers experience a culture that demands continual peak performance, high commitment, frequent interpersonal conflicts (Schmitt, 2019), and a dancer body (i.e., tall, slim, and lean). This type of culture has been suggested to result in trait anxiety and worry (Carr & Wyon, 2003). Research is needed to better understand the characteristics of the training culture of vocational dance programmes in the UK. The aim of this PhD is to investigate the culture in vocational dance institutions around the UK and its influence on young vocational dancers' mental health and well-being. By using both qualitative and quantitative methodologies, the project will explore two specific research questions: 1) What are the key features of the culture in vocational dance training as experienced by vocational dance students? and 2) How does the culture of vocational dance training influence dancers' mental health and psychological well-being? This novel study will contribute to existing literature by providing insight into the culture vocational dance students are embedded within during their training. This will provide dance coaches and teachers with an understanding of how the dance culture that they create can influence young dancers' mental health and psychological well-being, and the type of culture they should be aiming to implement to promote better mental health and well-being.