What has happened during the pandemic? Scrutinizing the mental health effect on student-athletes within ASEAN Countries

Abstract

Economic lockdown and social distancing have driven athletes worldwide to change their regular habits. Nevertheless, being a university student-athlete has already come with complex pressures, extraneous compared to normal student life. Hence, this study aims to identify the mental well-being during the pandemic of Covid-19 within the student-athletes group from ASEAN countries. The quantitative approach using an online questionnaire was administered to n=110 respondents consisting of 60 males and 50 females. Overall, through data analysis using SPSS version 28, the results showed that the student-athletes experienced sleep difficulties (μ=3.221) throughout the pandemic lockdown and had difficulties in making human physical contact (μ=1.55). Findings also indicated that the training process of the student-athlete group was affected, thus impacted to their mental health.  In short, the pandemic has caused student-athlete to have a decline in motivation levels, increased stress, and induce a feeling of helplessness.