Investigating the mental well-being of athletes in Singapore

• Main Author: Tan, Yan Fen
• Other Authors: Dr. Zason Chian
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2018
• Subjects: DRNTU::Science::General
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/73803
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

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.