UW study shows students involved in campus recreation adapted better to pandemic

Engaging in campus recreation such as intramurals or exercising at the gym had an impact on student success during lockdowns.

PhD student at the University of Waterloo, Narges Abdeahad, planned on doing a study on how campus recreation impacts general student well-being, however the COVID-19 pandemic had other ideas.

Steven Mock, Associate Professor in the Department of Recreation and Leisure Studies explained how it affected the work Abdeahad started before the pandemic struck in March 2020.

“That's what she thought she was going to do,” said Mock. “Then the pandemic happened and it looked like it was going to throw a monkey wrench into her data collection… so she had to retool the study.”

Mock explained that the plan was for the data to be longitudinal, which means that she was going to collect data at two different times in an effort to show cause and effect in her study.

Mock said that Abdeahad already had data from January 2020 for her original work.

“This incredibly challenging situation turned into an amazing opportunity for her to study how did previous campus rec involvement have an impact on later adjustment to the pandemic lockdown. Incredibly, what she found is that people who are more involved with campus rec pre-lockdown actually adjusted much better.”

Data was only collected from students who were enrolled in one of UW's hundreds of recreational programs. It also does not include student athletes.

The study found that the more involved students were with recreation, the better they were able to adapt to challenges and setbacks.

“There's something about that organized group engagement in a university-based activity that was also having a positive spillover on another university-based activity, which is their academic adjustment during the lockdown.”

According to Mock, Abdeahad is now lecturing at Brock University, and is interested in diving deeper into why academic competence is affected by recreational sports.

You can read more about the study here.