Revista Argentina de Clínica Psicológica 2020, Vol. XXIX, N°2, 765-771
DOI: 10.24205/03276716.2020.308 765
I
NTERVENTION
E
FFECT OF
P
HYSICAL
E
DUCATION ON
M
ENTAL
H
EALTH
OF
C
OLLEGE
S
TUDENTS
Yucheng Zhou, Meiying Jiang
Abstract
The mental health of college students has attracted the attention from various parties, including but not limited to their families, the schools and educational experts. This paper mainly explores the intervention effect of physical education on the mental health of college students. First, a physical education intervention plan was designed, covering gymnastics, martial arts and ball games. Then, a contrastive experiment was carried out on some sophomores and seniors, who were selected carefully from three universities in Shijiazhuang, China. The mental health of the subjects was measured before and after the experiment through interview and questionnaire survey, using several famous psychometric tools. The experimental results show that the experimental group outshined the control group in all the indices of mental health, especially the positive emotion. This means the intervention of physical education could significantly improve the mental health of college students. The overall emotional state of the experimental group was not constant in back test, but still better than that of the control group. The research results lay the basis for teaching intervention of mental health in colleges.
Key words: Mental Health, Intervention, Physical Education, College Students.
Received: 22-03-19 | Accepted: 19-09-19
INTRODUCTION
In today's and tomorrow's society,
competition is getting fiercer and fiercer. As the main talents trained for society, college students will become the main objectss of competition (Mailey, Wójcicki, Motl et al., 2010). If college students do not want to be eliminated, they must have a healthy mental state in addition to solid theoretical knowledge and outstanding practical ability (Snowden, 2003). However, due to a combination of learning pressure,
employment pressure, and ideological
difference due to the loss of advantages in similar groups after enrollment, the mental health problems of college students should not be neglected (Li, & Ren, 2019).
A large number of studies have shown that the number of mental health problems among
Chongqing Jiaotong University, Chongqing 400074, China. E-Mail: zhouyucheng@sina.com
college students is higher than that among ordinary young people, and the proportion of students with different degrees of mental health problems is increasing year by year (Murphy & Hennessy, 2017). In fact, college students' mental health problems for a variety of reasons are not terrible and can even be understood and accepted (Collins, Woolfson, & Durkin, 2014). However, the failure to give them the right
guidance and timely adjustment could
eventually lead to campus violence similar to that of Ma Jiajue and others (Tol, Komproe, Jordans et al., 2012). According to the feedback of staff engaged in mental health education of college students, the number of college students with psychological counseling problems in psychological counseling centers and mental health education institutions per school year is far less than the data from the sample survey (Aelterman, Vansteenkiste, Lynn et al., 2014).
In the past decade, although there have been some related research results (Canby, Cameron,
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Calhoun et al., 2015), most of them focus on the survey of mental health status of college students and very few studies have been conducted on how to intervene in negative psychological states from a pedagogical perspective (Qouta, Palosaari, Diab et al., 2012).
Based on the above background, this research tries to study the influence of the intervention of physical education and health
education (hereinafter referred to as
"intervention education") on the mental health of college students from the angle of improving students' mental health and by referring to the advanced research results of education, psychology, health science and other theories.
EXPERIMENTAL PROCESS
Relationship among physical education, health education and mental health education
Education is closely related to health, and education is a prerequisite for health (Hintz, Frazier, & Meredith, 2015). Schools are not only the place to spread cultural knowledge, but also the places with the most educational resources to promote young people's physical and mental health. Physical education is an important part of education system in China to carry out quality education and cultivate all-round talents. Health education is a purposeful educational activity that emphasizes the continuous improvement of the quality of life by changing people's behavior (Milazzo-Sayre, McKeon, & Hughes, 2016).
There is close relationship among physical education, mental health education and health education. First of all, physical education is a part of big health education. Secondly, mental health education is the cross product of physical education and health education. Finally, physical education is the education that can have a comprehensive impact on students' physical and mental health, and its unique physical education teaching organization and teaching method are conducive to improving students' mental health level (Vona, Wilmoth, Jaycox et al., 2014). Therefore, the relationship among physical education, health education, and mental health education as shown in Figure 1 are interwoven and interpenetrated to jointly achieve the educational goals of promoting the overall development of students (Clough, Mackenzie, Mallabon et al., 2016).
Figure 1
.
Relationship among physical
education, health education and mental
health education
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Health Education
Research subjects and the content of intervention education
The stratified cluster sampling method is used to select the research subjects from the sophomores and seniors of three universities (hereinafter referred to as Universities A, B and C) in Shijiazhuang. Among them, 800 college students are selected from Universities A and B as experimental intervention group, and 350 college students are selected as in-school control group. Then 350 college students are selected from University C as out-of-school control group. Prior to the start of the research, there are 800 students in the experimental group and 700 in the control group, with an average age of 18.73 ± 3.29 years. At the end of the research, there are 767 students in the experimental group and 690 students in the control group, totally 1,457 students. A total of 1,350 valid questionnaires are obtained (728 students in the experimental group and 622 students in the control group; 651 males and 699 females). The collection rate is 92.6%.
According to the economics, cultural
background, teaching situation of the
experimental place, the specialty of the experimental class headmaster and the interest of the students, this research chooses gymnastics (including aerobics), martial arts, and sports (basketball & volleyball) as the main teaching contents (see Table 1), combining various sports games, to give full play to the autonomy and enthusiasm of teachers and students in physical education (Buckner, Bassuk, & Zima, 1993).
INTERVENTION EFFECT OF PHYSICAL EDUCATION ON MENTAL HEALTH OF COLLEGE STUDENTS 767
Table 1.
Contents of Physical Education Intervention
Course nature Course
category Course content Intervention dimension
Compulsory course
Theory class
Health and success Emotions and health Physical exercise science method physical examination and physical
examination
Overall health concept Emotion and character Physical exercise scientific view
Adolescence (self-awareness) Scientific principles and methods
Practice course
Aerobics, durable running Martial arts, ball Gymnastics, games
Adopting participatory physical education methods that stimulate students' interest in learning and mobilize students' enthusiasm,
with comprehensive intervention
Elective course
Restricted course
Conducting education in the form of a youth sports club, boys mainly practicing ball and strength, and girls mainly in dance and aerobics
Carry out a variety of healthy physical and mental health education in youth sports
clubs, with comprehensive intervention
Optional Courses
Weekly activities include motorized
time for students (Same as the above)
Extracurricular activities
Theme class Social Survey Watching and visiting
Collaborative teaching in different disciplines;
Organizing interest groups, discussion forums
Exploratory use of educational methods of research learning, allowing students to discover the true meaning of sports through
extracurricular practice
Lecture For students Let science sports lead students to health and confidence
Deepen students' understanding of the relationship between sports and mental health and improve their knowledge level
Table 2.
Psychological Measurement Form and Questionnaire
Scale name Presenter Main dimension Measuring purpose Student Mental
Health Scale
(MHI-60) Wang Jisheng, 1997
Consists of 60 items, including 10 dimensions: compulsion, paranoia, hostility, interpersonal tension depression,
anxiety, learning stress, maladaptive, emotional instability, unbalanced heart
Overall mental health status of students
Will quality
self-test simple scale Zheng Richang, 1994 20 items Evaluation of student will quality Self-esteem scale Rosenberg,1965 10 items The overall feeling of self-worth
and self-acceptance State of mind
profile (POMS) D. M. McNair
Consists of 40 items, including 7 dimensions: confusion, fatigue, self-confidence, tension, depression, vitality,
anger
Evaluate emotional state Personal
evaluation questionnaire
Shrauger, 1990
50 items, including 5 dimensions: academic performance, sports, appearance,
friendship, communication skills
Examine the tester's credit level Sports and Health
KAP Questionnaire
Self-edited
Including sports and health and health care knowledge, physical exercise attitude and
participation behavior
Evaluate the sports, health, attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors of
the target population
Psychometric tools
The psychometric tools are shown in Table 2. Furthermore, the reliability and validity of the questionnaires and scales used in the study are tested, and the results show that the reliability and validity meet the requirements of educational psychology and could accurately reflect the mental health of college students.
RESULTS AND ANALYSIS
Analysis of mental health status before
intervention education
Before physical education intervention, the mental health status of college students is shown in Figure 2.
As can be seen from Figure 2:
(1) The mental health of boys is better than that of girls. In the future intervention study, we should pay attention to the mental health of girls and provide the different measures to different gender students.
(2) The proportion of college students with mild mental health problems is 57.26%, which indicates that under the current situation that
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the only-children are the majority in the whole
student group, it is the inescapable
responsibility of educators to guide and help college students to form good personality and correct life concept and improve their learning ability.
(3) The overall mental health of the students is good, but 7.14% of the tested students suffer from moderate and above psychological problems, and 58.25% suffer from mild and above psychological problems. In order to avoid that abnormal psychological tendency of college students may develop into serious psychological problem, college education should guide students to master mental health knowledge and psychological adjustment methods.
Comparison of emotional state before intervention education
The emotional state of college students
before physical education intervention is shown in Table 3.
From Table 3, it can be seen that:
(1) There is no significant difference in emotion between different gender students.
(2) There are certain differences in positive emotion among students of different grades. Among them, because of the test and employment choice, junior students have lower score in positive emotion.
Influence of intervention education on the overall mental health of college students
The influence of intervention education on the overall mental health of college students is shown in Figures 3 and 4.
As can be seen from Figures 3 and 4, the students without mental health problems in MHI-60 experimental group change by the order
Figure 2
.
Mental health score of college students before intervention
Table 3.
Comparison of Emotional Changes of College Students before Intervention
Dimension Sophomore
Junior
Test group
Total Control group Total
Second year Third grade Second year Third grade
M±SD M±SD M±SD M±SD M±SD M±SD
Panic 4.43±3.76 4.93±3.61 4.68±3.69 5.42±3.89 5.06±3.74 5.24±3.82
Repress 3.94±4.38 4.39±4.97 4.17±4.68 4.91±4.49 4.5±5.08 4.71±4.79
tension 4.72±4.12 4.71±4.41 4.72±4.27 5.7±4.24 4.83±4.53 5.27±4.39
fatigue 5.23±3.79 5.52±4.01 5.37±3.90 6.22±3.92 5.63±4.14 5.93±4.03
anger 3.39±4.53 3.82±4.06 3.61±4.30 4.36±4.64 3.93±4.17 4.15±4.41
Self-esteem 13.64±3.6 13.65±3.3 13.65±3.4 14.62±3.7 13.77±3.4 14.20±3.6 energy 15.84±6.2 13.69±5.9 14.77±6.11 16.83±6.4 13.82±6.07 15.33±6.24 Positive
emotion 29.58±8.9 27.06±8.8 28.32±8.93 30.55±9.08 27.17±8.99 28.86±9.0 Negative
emotions 20.11±18.1 18.12±16.3 19.12±17.2 21.09±18.2 18.24±16.4 19.67±17.3 TMD 93.33±19.9 90.12±20.7 91.73±20.3 88.31±20.0 90.24±20.9 89.28±20.5
Forc e
Para noia
Hos tility
tens ion
Dep ress
ion Anx
iety
Stu dy-in
duce d
Ma lada
p Mo
od
Unb ala
nced Me
nta l
0 20 40 60 80
Pretest Post test Back test
INTERVENTION EFFECT OF PHYSICAL EDUCATION ON MENTAL HEALTH OF COLLEGE STUDENTS 769
of poor adaptation, emotional fluctuation,
mental imbalance, anxiety, hostility,
compulsion, interpersonal tension and
sensitivity, depression, paranoia, and learning stress; by the changes of moderate and above problems in each dimension, they are compulsion, learning pressure, paranoia, mood fluctuation, anxiety, interpersonal tension and sensitivity, psychological imbalance, hostility, maladjustment and depression.
In the intervention education, most student
hope to learn practical knowledge of mental health, and hope to alleviate the psychological pressure through physical activities, and think that physical education and youth sports club are the most appropriate places to alleviate the psychological pressure and increase the opportunities to communicate with students (89.44%).
Figure 3
.
Changes of students without mental health problems in MHI-60 experimental group
before and after intervention
Figure 4
.
Changes of students with moderate and above problems in MHI-60 experimental
group before and after intervention
Force
Para noia
Hos tility
tens ion
Dep ress
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iety
Stu dy-in
duce d
Ma lada
p Mo
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Unb alanc
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ntal 0
20 40 60 80
Pretest Post test Back test
Forc e
Para noia
Hos tility
tens ion
Dep ress
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Stu dy-in
duce d
Ma lada
p Mo
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Unb alanc
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20 40
Pretest Post test Back test
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Table 4.
Comparison of Emotional Changes of College Students after Intervention
Dimension Sophomore
Junior
Test group
Total Control group Total
Second year Third grade Second year Third grade
M±SD M±SD M±SD M±SD M±SD M±SD
Panic 4.18±3.51 4.07±3.36 4.125±3.45 4.31±3.64 4.23±3.53 4.257±3.67 Repress 3.69±4.13 3.53±4.72 3.61±4.43 3.82±4.19 3.63±4.78 3.71±4.59 tension 4.47±3.87 3.85±4.16 4.16±4.02 4.59±4.01 3.94±4.17 4.28±4.15 fatigue 4.98±3.54 4.64±3.76 4.81±3.65 5.13±3.73 4.75±3.92 4.92±3.78 anger 3.14±4.28 2.96±3. 81 3.05±4.05 3.27±4.42 3.05±3.89 3.15±4.15 Self-esteem 13.39±3.38 12.79±3.06 13.09±3.22 13.49±3.57 12.89±3.19 13.20±3.34
energy 15.59±6.02 12.83±5.69 14.21±5.86 15.71±6.13 12.94±5.87 14.33±5.89 Positive
emotion 29.33±8.72 26.20±8.63 27.76±8.68 29.40±8.81 26.30±8.69 27.86±8.78 Negative
emotions 19.86±17.89 17.26±16.03 18.56±16.96 19.93±17.99 17.34±16.13 18.68±17.08 TMD 87.08±19.65 89.26±20.54 88.17±20.10 87.19±19.65 89.36±19.67 88.26±19.38
Influence of intervention education on the emotional state of college students
The emotional changes of college students after intervention are shown in Table 4.
According to Table 4, the mean value of the two positive emotional dimensions such as self-esteem and energy is increased in the experimental group compared with the control group, and the difference between the two groups is statistically significant (P < 0.05). From the comprehensive score, the positive emotion increases and the negative emotion decreases, which further proves that the intervention education improves the overall emotional state of students in the experimental group.
Compared with the experimental group, the three dimensions such as panic, tension and self-esteem of students in the control group are higher than those before the intervention, while the other four dimensions are lower than those before the intervention. Overall, there is a slight increase in positive and negative emotions. The overall emotional state of the experimental group is not constant in back test, but it is still better than that of the control group.
CONCLUSIONS
This paper focuses on the intervention effects of physical education on college students' mental health, and the conclusions are as follows:
(1) 7.14% of tested students suffer from moderate or above mental health problems, and 58.25% from mild or above mental health problems, which indicates the necessity of intervention education;
(2) The mental health status of college
students has obvious main effect of gender, among which the mental health status of female students is lower than that of male students.
(3) The change values of mental health and emotion in the experimental group are 6.76 and 14.60 respectively after the intervention of physical education in 1,500 college students. The number of students without mental health problems increase by 13.57%, and the number of students with moderate and above mental health problems decrease by 0.92%, which proves that the intervention of physical education can promote the mental health of college students.
Acknowledgement
Education and teaching reform project of
Chongqing Jiaotong University.Research on the
construction and innovation of sports teaching mode in universities from the perspective of smart campus construction. Project No.:1903042.
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