A current examine from the University of Waterloo reveals that prior involvement in campus leisure sports activities can scale back stress and enhance tutorial competence, even throughout high-stress conditions like pandemic lockdowns. The analysis discovered that pre-pandemic participation in health lessons, intramural, and drop-in sports activities led to decreased stress ranges and elevated perceived competence in managing challenges and schoolwork throughout lockdown.
A historical past of taking part in campus leisure sports activities can offset stress and contribute to tutorial competence even throughout high-stress durations corresponding to a pandemic lockdown, reveals a brand new examine.
Researchers on the University of Waterloo discovered that participation in actions corresponding to health lessons and intramural and drop-in sports activities earlier than the COVID-19 pandemic was linked to decrease ranges of stress and better ranges of perceived competence to deal with challenges and grasp faculty workload throughout the lockdown.
“Our findings suggest that the impact of campus recreational activities on reducing stress went beyond the obvious physical health benefits and contributed to overall well-being even down the line.” — Steven Mock
The examine used issue and regression analyses primarily based on self-reported responses from 116 college students energetic in campus leisure sports activities at two-time factors – January 2020, earlier than the pandemic and April 2020, after COVID lockdowns.
“Our findings suggest that the impact of campus recreational activities on reducing stress went beyond the obvious physical health benefits and contributed to overall well-being even down the line,” stated Steven Mock, a researcher within the division of Recreation and Leisure Studies.
“It’s possible that students who had learned how to deal with challenges and losses in the context of sport and recreational activity developed key skills such as adaptability that helped them manage with pandemic-related setbacks.”
At the start of winter 2020, stress ranges for college students have been usually low. Managing tutorial calls for, constructing new relationships, and attempting to realize private targets have been the highest three stressors at the moment.
“Students had simply come again from the vacation break, their tutorial workload was nonetheless low, and so they weren’t anticipating any societal disruption corresponding to COVID-19,” said co-author Narges Abdeahad, a former PhD candidate in the department of Recreation and Leisure Studies.
By April 2020, after lockdowns had begun, the overall level of stress had increased to above the midpoint, and the top stressors had changed to online delivery of quizzes and exams, the influence of the pandemic on their lives, and managing academic demands.
“We also found that graduate students and, even more so, international students had very low participation in campus recreational sports pre-pandemic, which has wellness implications for these two groups of students,” said Abdeahad.
“Since campus recreational sports appear to help develop lifelong skills that offset stressful events, educational institutions should consider including campus recreational sports as a strategy to enhance student mental health and well-being.”
Reference: “The role of past campus recreational sports participation in predicting students’ stress and competence during the COVID-19 pandemic” by Narges Abdeahad and Steven Mock, 6 February 2023, Journal of Leisure Research.
DOI: 10.1080/00222216.2023.2165203
