Effect of a period of collective and individual matches on mental health of high school boy students

This study investigated the effects of participation of futsal and table tennis matches on boy students’ mental health of Behbahan high schools in Iran. Participants were 60 boys aged 15–17 out which 20 students were recruited among futsal teams of school memberships (Collective sport=CS), 20 students among table tennis teams (Individual sport=IS), and 20 students among those who were not interested in any physical activities (Sedentary group=SG), that were randomly selected as multi-branches. The CS, as 5 parallel groups, and the IS, as individuals, after 5 sessions for 1.5 hours per day for identifying the rules, regulations and teaching, participated in periodic matches, during 8 weeks, as a two-day competition, and one day for solving their probable problems. Goldberg and Hillier's 28-item scaled version of the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-28), as a pre-test and a post-test, were administered on the empirical groups (EGs) and the SG simultaneously, but the SG did not participate in any physical activity. The results showed that participation in the table tennis matches had a positive effect on mental health (p<0.05), but this effect was not significant in the CS. Further, the results of the GHQ-28 in both EGs were significantly different than the SG. Moreover, the results suggest that both kinds of matches had a positive effect on teenagers' mental health, but individual matches showed more effectiveness.