Digital support for female students in physical education universities in Japan

Abstract

At the age of university students, it is important to accomplish the developmental tasks of adolescents. Furthermore, in addition to acquiring specialized knowledge and accomplishing developmental tasks, athletic colleges also require young athletes to be active. Therefore, we decided to investigate the use of a smartphone application, me-fullness® as an unprecedented method of support for female college students currently enrolled in athletic colleges. We conducted a psychological survey of female university students at the International Pacific University in Okayama, Japan, before and after one month of use of a me-fullness® app (N = 125) and a group of non-users (N = 85). The app-using group showed significant improvement in depressive symptoms, anxiety symptoms and stress scores as indicated by the Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale − 21 Items (DASS-21), as well as insomnia, Premenstrual Syndrome (PMS) and resilience scores, while the non-app-using group showed improvement in anxiety and resilience (by Wilcoxon signed-rank test). This study suggests that use of the me-fullness app may have improved depression, stress, insomnia, and resilience. We hope that this study will lead to better college life and sports performance for female students in athletic universities and colleges.