A Comparative Study of Mental Health of Sportspersons and Non-Sportspersons of Punjab

Mental health is an index which shows the extent to which the person has been able to meet his environmental demands-social, emotional or physical. The purpose of the study was to compare the Mental Health among Sports persons and Non Sports persons of Punjab. A total of 400 male constituted the sample for the investigator. This sample was selected from the Punjabi University Patiala and its affiliated College. The subjects were divided into two groups on the basis of Sports persons (n=200) and non-sportsman (n=200). The age range of 18-26 years was taken as a subject for the present study. Mental health inventory developed by Jagdish and Srivastava (1996) was used to measure mental health. The inventory consists of 56 items, including 32 false keyed (negative) and 24 true keyed (positive) statements. It was hypothesized that there will be no significant difference between Sports persons and non-sportspersons in term of Mental health status. Hence, the formulated hypothesis that there will be no significant difference between Sports persons and non-Sports persons on mental health variable was rejected at 0.05 level of significance. The data collected on mental health component was analyzed by independent t test. The level of significance for testing the hypothesis was set at 0.05 level of confidence. The results have shown that there was a significant difference between Sports persons and non-Sports persons in term of mental health score arranged by mental health inventory questionnaire (df=398, t=6.736, Pless than.05). The higher mean score of Sports persons (M=144.95) on mental health variable than the non Sports persons (M=136.85) indicates that Sports persons report higher mental health indexed in shape of life e. g. positive self evaluation perception of reality integration of personality autonomy group oriented attitude environmental competence overall than their non-Sports persons counterparts.