The Impact of Participation in Extracurricular Activities on the Mental Wellbeing of Youth From Military Families in Pakistan: Exploring the Mediating Role of Social Support

Abstract

Background: Military-connected adolescents face issues like the deployment of parents and relocation to new areas. This creates difficulty in forming long-term social connections, which may impact their mental health. However, participation in extracurricular activities may buffer the impact of stressors experienced by military students.

Objectives: The current study aimed to investigate the impact of participation in extracurricular activities on their mental well-being and to explore the role of social support as a mediator.

Methods: A quantitative cross-sectional study design using a mediation model was used, in which 100 military-connected youth from different educational institutes participated. The questionnaire comprised a demographic sheet and three pre-validated tools, i.e., the Extra-curricular Activity Involvement Scale, Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale, and the Social Provisions Scale. SPSS was used to analyze the responses using descriptive statistics, linear regression, mediation analysis, and analysis of variance (p ≤ 0.05).

Results: Sixty-one percent of the participants were males, and 38% were 19-20 years old. The mean relocation frequency was 5.45 ± 2.89 times, and the educational institutes were changed 4.24 ± 2.78 times. The breadth and intensity of extracurricular activities involvement positively predicted mental well-being, with F (1, 98) = 4.26, p = .042, R2 = .04, and F (1, 98) = 5.93, p = .017, R2 = .06, respectively. Social support also significantly predicted mental well-being with F (1, 98) = 42.94, p < .001, R2 = .31. However, social support did not mediate the relationship (p > .05). In addition, there were significant mean differences in breadth of extracurricular activity involvement (p = .020), mental well-being (p = .013), and social support (p = .010) based on the age of the military-connected youth.

Conclusion: These findings reflect that parents and educational institutions should engage the relocated military-connected students in more extracurricular activities and should not ignore them so that they can easily adjust to the new surroundings and have a positive impact on their mental well-being.