Recreational Sport Participation as a Moderator of College Stress

The purpose of this study was to demonstrate that campus recreation could play an important role in student development by providing opportunities for students to cope with the increasing pressures and stress of college life. Forty-four university students completed pre-tests and daily diaries for five weeks surrounding their final exams. Hierarchical multiple regression procedures were used to control the confounding effect of personality, initial anxiety, and physical health on the predictive relationship between recreational sport participation and perceived social support with stress-related anxiety. The results confirmed the hypothesis that after controlling for personality variations, initial anxiety and physical health, both perceived social support and participation in recreational sports could buffer stress-related anxiety.