Mental Health and Social Connectedness During the COVID-19 Pandemic: An Analysis of Sports and E-Sports Players

Recently, the pandemic context in which the world finds itself has inspired studies that sought to evaluate to mental health and the way people are relating to the purpose of understanding and promoting improvements psychological health. The epidemiological and public health literature shows that social connection protects and promotes mental health, being an important clinical tool for reducing anxiety, depression, and stress. Thinking in the broad sense of connection, that is, feeling and perceiving oneself connected with the environment, applied to the context of sport, it is suggested that social connection could be related to the interactions in the practice of sport. Although playing sports can promote mental health, there are few findings on the topic in the context of a pandemic and with physical sports and electronic sports (e-sports) players. In this sense, the present study aims to assess the extent to which social connection and mental health indicators are correlated in a sample of sports and e-sports players. The participants were 401 Brazilian physical sports (N = 199, 49.6%) and e-sports players (N = 202, 50.4%), mostly male (53.1%) and single (59.9%), who filled in the Social Connectedness Scale (SCS), the Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale (DASS), and demographic questions. The results indicated that social connection was negatively correlated and also predict the anxiety (r = -0.37), depression (r = -0.54), and stress (r = -0.39). When comparing sports and e-sports players, a statistically significant difference was identified in the levels of social connection [t(398) = -3.41; sports(mean) (SD) = 4.53 (1.14); e-sports(mean) (SD) = 4.14 (1.15)] and depression [t(396) = 2.90; sports(mean) (SD) = 1.10 (0.89); e-sports(mean) (SD) = 0.85 (0.81)]. These findings can serve as a theoretical basis for the development of intervention programs (e.g., to guide managers regarding the social distancing rules that enable them to keep holding sports practices and events) and promoting discussions that focus on the analysis of aspects promoting psychological health in sports context (physical and e-sports).