The relationship between sports participation and reappraisal-use during daily challenges among young adults.

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: In this retrospective study, we aimed to investigate the relationship between the use of reappraisal, an efficacious emotion regulation strategy, and sports participation among young adults. The primary objective was to determine whether sports participation in competitive environments is associated with reappraisal when young adults face adversity. METHOD: Young adults between the ages of 18 and 25 who lived in the United States were recruited through free online research portals and paid panel service. Upon confirming their consent statements, all participants were directed to the Harvard-hosted online Qualtrics platform to self-complete the questionnaire that covered demographics, history of sports participation, stressful life events, use of emotion regulation strategies in daily life, and endorsement of depression symptoms. RESULTS: This study consisted of 431 respondents, 67% of whom (female = 50%, male = 48%) participated in sports, and 43.6% engaged for over a year. Nearly 54% took part in competitive sports, whether organized or unorganized, such as playing on school or club teams. The remaining 46% were involved in non-competitive sports, like solo morning runs or practicing yoga with friends. Furthermore, young adults who engaged in sports were significantly more likely to use reappraisal (z = -3.03, p = .002) in the past three months and cognitive reappraisal (t = -1.996, p = .047) in daily life compared to those who did not participate in sports. In addition, individuals who participated in competitive sports showed a higher tendency to employ reappraisal (p .006) compared to the non-competitive group. Likewise, after accounting for the depression symptoms, a higher attempt to use cognitive reappraisal was found in the competitive group than in the non-competitive group (p = .04). In the context of gender differences, there were no significant variations between females and males in the use of reappraisal (p = .181) and cognitive reappraisal (p = .691), despite females reported higher scores in depression symptoms (p = .05) and lower engagement in competitive sports (p .001) compared to males. CONCLUSION: These study findings suggest that participation in sports, particularly competitive sports, is associated with more frequent use of reappraisal strategies to manage emotions. This association holds regardless of gender, although females may be more likely to endorse depression symptoms and are less involved in competitive sports. These insights highlight the potential psychological benefits of sports engagement, especially in fostering the tendency to use reappraisal when facing adversity among young adults. Future research can explore how different types of sports (competitive vs. non-competitive) influence the use of reappraisal strategies, using experimental or longitudinal approaches to clarify directionality and causality.