Exploring the perceived mental health benefits of pickleball for junior players: a pilot study

Abstract

ABSTRACT Pickleball was first introduced in the 1960s and is growing quickly in popularity. A variety of benefits for adult pickleball players are reported in the literature. However, there has only been one study of pickleball for junior players published in the literature. In the present exploratory pilot study, we used a questionnaire to examine the perceptions of 51 junior pickleball players between the ages of 8 and 18 in the US. Results indicated that junior players had positive perceptions of the sport. Pickleball playing appeared to have a variety of mental health benefits including decreased stress, as well as improvements in coping, focus, making friends, and mood. Results also suggested that for every 1.00 standard deviation increase in the number of times pickleball was played each month, there was a predicted increase in benefits of 0.35 standard deviations, a small-to-moderate effect size.