Sports for Positive Mental Health: A Comparative Study of Mental Health among Individual Athletes, Team Athletes And Non-Athletes

Mental Health affects our ability to make the most of the opportunities that come our way and play a full part amongst our family, workplace, community and friends. It’s also closely linked with our physical health. Whether we call it well-being, emotional welfare or mental health, it’s key to living a fulfilling life.

The purpose of the study was to compare the Mental Health status among Individual Athletes, Team Athletes and Non-Athletes. Purposive sampling was done in which subjects for the present study were 148 male students of Navsari Agricultural University, Navsari studying various courses in the academic year 2013-14. The Mental Health Scale prepared by Dr .D .J.Bhatt and Ms. Geeta R. Geedawas used as a tool for the present study.

The scores arrived from 45 Individual Athletes, 51 Team Athletes and 52 Non-Athletes were compared by applying the ‘F’ test. The resultant value 7.566 was found significant at the predetermined confidence level of 0.5. Further, this study revealed significant difference between the mean score of Team Athlete & Non-Athlete, whereas there was no significant difference between the Individual Athlete & Team Athlete and that of Individual Athlete & Non-Athlete. Thus it was evident that Mental Health of Team Athlete was significantly better in comparison to Individual Athlete and Non-Athlete. This clearly shows that those who participate in team games have more chances to stay mentally fit as they involve themselves in preparing mentally for various team competitions. Mental Health is considered to be one of the important components of daily life style. This is certainly an important factor for all of us to live better and longer life. Thus, we all should daily participate in physical activity to stay physically and mentally fit.