Being a sports fan, whether you’re watching top flight football, the Olympic games or your favourite local team, can be a rollercoaster ride. Incredible highs if you win, depressing lows if you don’t, and lots of stressful feelings in between. Thankfully, the overall impact should be a positive one because research has shown that people who watch sports experience greater wellbeing than those who don’t – and that this is probably linked to the social aspects of watching sport.
By wellbeing we mean a person’s psychological state – how well someone feels. People with higher wellbeing tend to have better physical health and live longer than people with lower wellbeing. Research carried out by our group at Anglia Ruskin University – led by Helen – used data from 7,209 adults, aged 16-85, living in England who participated in the Taking Part Survey commissioned by the UK government.
We found that people in the UK who attended a live sporting event in the last year are more satisfied with their lives, feel their lives are more worthwhile, and are less lonely than people who have not. These findings chime with other studies , which found that people who watch sports in person at least once a year have fewer depressive symptoms than those who do not. Can’t get to live events? Watching sports on TV and online can also be good for your wellbeing.
Research has shown that people who watch sports on TV or on the internet were also less depressed than those who did not, a.