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Investigating the mental well-being of athletes in Singapore
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Type
Final Year Project (FYP)
Author
Tan, Yan Fen
Supervisor
Chian, Zason Lit Khoon
Abstract
Since the “Sports for All” policy in 1973, the government has been encouraging greater sports participation in Singapore (MCCY, 2001). Well-established benefits of physical activity are lower risk of: early death, coronary heart disease, stroke, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, metabolic syndrome, cancer, weight gain and depression, etc (HPB, 2011). However, little is known about the benefits of physical activity and sports participation to mental well-being in Singapore. Therefore, this study aims to: 1) Investigate the current status of mental well-being of athletes in the Singaporean context and gain in-depth knowledge and understanding of their mental well-being. 2) Determine if there is any association between the years of participating and competing in sports with mental well-being in elite and competitive athletes. 170 Elite, competitive and recreational athletes aged between 18-30 years old from the researcher’s personal network, Nanyang Technological University and the Singapore Sports Institute completed the 30-item Singapore Mental Well-being questionnaire. There was no significant difference in median mental well-being scores between elite, competitive and recreational athletes. All 3 groups of athletes have good median mental well-being scores. There were moderately strong, positive and statistically significant correlations between participating and competing in sports and mental well-being: rs = .342, p < .001 and rs = .382, p < .001 in elite and competitive athletes. In conclusion, being involved in sports at any level such as elite, competitive or recreational level is beneficial to one’s mental well-being - a good level of: self-esteem, cognitive efficacy, resilience, social intelligence and emotional intelligence.
Date Issued
2018
Publisher
Nanyang Technological University