Comparing Mental Health of Female Athlete and Non-Athlete Students of Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences

Introduction: During the recent decades, many scholars focused on the physical activities as an influencing factor on psychological and mental status. Concerning the importance of university students’ mental health, this paper investigates the effects of physical activities on promoting their mental health. Materials and Methods: In this descriptive analytical study, 200 female students of Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences were selected as the participants. The case group consists of female athlete students and the control group includes female non-athlete students. The instrument used in this study was GHQ-28, along with some more demographic questions. The collected data was analyzed by SPSS 16, using Frequency, Standard deviation, T-test and Chi-Square. Results: data has shown that the average scores for general health differ significantly between athlete and non-athlete female students P < .05.The highest average scores were for depression among female athlete students and social dysfunction among female non-athlete students. The lowest average score was for anxiety among both groups. The average score of general health among female non-athlete students was higher than the cut-off point of 23.It was found that the higher the father’s education was, the lower the general health’s scores were. Conclusion: The results showed that athlete studentsʹ mental health is better than that of non-athlete ones.