Beaulac, Julie2013-11-082013-11-0820082008Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 70-05, Section: B, page: 3161.http://hdl.handle.net/10393/29606http://dx.doi.org/10.20381/ruor-13049Young people from low socio-economic, minority, and other disadvantaged groups tend to be less physically active and to have poorer health. With this in mind, a community-academic partnership was formed to respond to the need for more physical activity programming targeting disadvantaged young people. The purpose of this thesis was to investigate the implementation and perceived impact of a new hip-hop dance program on the psychological, social, and physical well-being of youth aged 11 to 16 years living in a multicultural, disadvantaged community in Ottawa. In total, two studies were conducted. The first paper responds to the first project objective, which sought to better understand the needs, barriers, and facilitators to youth participation in physical activity in order to conceptualize the new program. Three focus groups were conducted with young people and parents from the target community. Findings suggested a need for more physical activity programming that was safe, accessible, age-appropriate, and culturally relevant. Hip-hop dance was reported as an appealing program option and thus, girls-only and co-ed formats of the program were implemented across two separate 3-month sessions, with funding from United Way Ottawa. The second and third objectives related to the evaluation of the new program, which involved a non-experimental pretest-posttest design from the perspective of the youth participant, parent, and program staff. Mixed methods were used, including document review, interview, focus group, observation, and questionnaire format. The second paper reviews the implementation of this new program. Overall, the consistency and quality of program implementation were moderately satisfactory; however, important concerns were noted, and the findings suggested that this program was only partially delivered as planned. Finally, the third paper reviews the success of the program. Quantitatively, there was a significant improvement in perceived hip-hop dance skills. The qualitative findings were more promising, showing positive perceived impacts across eight areas of well-being. Overall, the findings suggested that this intervention is a promising and relevant program for the promotion of youth psychological, social, and physical well-being, particularly if implementation concerns are addressed. Implications for the promotion of physical activity among this population and future research are reviewed.255 p.enDance.Education, Physical.Education, Educational Psychology.Psychology, Clinical.Thesis