Empowering Youth by Mitigating Depression, Anxiety, and Suicidal Thoughts through Cricket Sport

Abstract

This cross-sectional study sought to evaluate the prevalence and influence of sports participation on depression, anxiety, and suicidal ideation among male cricketers and non-cricketer students from various universities. Secondly, to assess the impact of depression and anxiety on suicidal ideation was also one of the primary objectives of the study. Therefore, a total of 192 male students from 6 universities participated in this cross-sectional study. The PHQ-2, GAD-2, SIDAS, and a demographic questionnaire were used to gather data. The gathered data underwent analysis through the utilization of independent t-test, descriptive statistics and simple linear regression. The findings revealed that anxiety and depression had a positive correlation with suicidal ideation. It was also observed that the levels of depression, suicidal ideation and anxiety were significantly lower in cricketers as compared to non-cricketer students. Hence, these findings reinforce the importance of sports participation as a mean to mitigate mental health challenges.