Twelfth International Conference on Sport & Society

Abstract

‘Sport on campus’ is often alluded to in terms of positive influence on and for the students who engage (Jewett et al, 2018), yet there is a darker tone to university sport that can be found in aspects such as the ‘hidden rituals’ (Brunton and Mackintosh, 2017) of sports club memberships and experiences of mental decline during transitions out of sport post-graduation (Jewett et al, 2018). Crucially though, in reference to this field of enquiry there is a notable sparseness of qualitative examination of university students’ sport experiences (Diehl et al, 2018; Roberts et al, 2015). Taking as a specific context the rising rates of lowered wellbeing and higher mental distress amongst university students in the UK (ONS 2020), and drawing on emergent themes generated through narrative interviews with current undergraduates, this paper explores how university students talk about their sport-related experiences in relation to their mental health and wellbeing. Themes such as injury (recovery); relationships and university community; time commitment and management; geographical specificity as well as connection to childhood will be considered. University sport is often (largely) discussed in terms of its connection to the ‘wider student experience’ (Brunton and Mackintosh, 2017) – delving deeper into the under-studied space for supporting student mental health and wellbeing that is sport (Swann et al, 2017) can ultimately provide clues for universities to use in their shaping and implementation of mechanisms to both respond to students in distress and develop their sports provisions in reference to wider ‘student experience’ goals.