Abstract
This study examined the influence of 7 high school esports developmental programs on student self-regulation, growth mindset, positive youth development (PYD), perceived general health and physical activity (PA), and sport behaviour. A total of 188 students (male n = 120; female n = 68) originally participated (89 enrolled in an esports program in their school and 99 acted as aged-matched controls), with 58 participants (n = 19 esports group; n = 39 controls) completing both pre- and post-program information. At baseline, no significant differences were found between youth e-athletes and their aged-matched controls. The analysis for the observation period showed a significant interaction effect for the PYD confidence scale, with post-hoc comparisons showing a significant decrease in the control group from pre- to post assessment whereas the esports group remained the same. Time main effects showed a decrease in the self-regulation motivation factor, PYD connection factor and PA for all participants. Overall, this study showed that students enrolled in their respective school esports program did not differ from those who did not in self-regulation, growth mindset, PYD, perceived health and PA, and sport behaviour. It was likely that all participants showed a decrease in motivation, connection, and PA due to COVID19 lockdown during the study period. This study is the first to investigate the longitudinal impact of student involvement in high school esports and showed that esports participation did not have a negative impact on any health or psychological factors.
Highlights
Esports has become hugely popular with the number of players and spectators growing year on year (Newzoo, 2020)
Except for sport participation, the results indicate no differences between the students enrolled in the esports program versus the control participants at baseline
This study investigated the influence of participation in an esports school program on the psychological and health (PA, sport participation, self-perceived general health) factors of adolescent e-athletes and aged-matched control participants
Summary
Esports has become hugely popular with the number of players and spectators growing year on year (Newzoo, 2020). The esports industry has been valued at over 24 billion dollars (Ahn et al, 2020) and professional esports athletes (e-athletes) can earn as much (or more) than traditional athletes (Finance Monthly, 2018). The rapid growth in esports is mostly due to the high levels of engagement of young people. A recent industry report showed that almost half of all esports fans are aged between 13 and 24 years (Nielsen, 2019). There has been a 500% increase in the number of high school esports developmental and grassroots programs and tournaments in Adolescent Psychology and Development in Esports the USA between 2018 and 2019 (Hennick, 2019). The increased popularity in esports has been accompanied by several concerns regarding sedentary behaviour, psychological development, and physical and psychological wellbeing (e.g., Shum et al, 2021)
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