The Effectiveness of Five Minutes Callisthenic Exercise on Depression, Anxiety and Stress Levels among Form Four Students

Abstract

Sports management in schools is essential to meet the requirements of sports such as implementation of the One Pupil One Sports Policy (1M1S) which requires every student to participate in at least one sports activity in school. The study aims to identify the effectiveness of five minutes Calisthenics exercise on the depression, anxiety, and stress levels among Form Four students. A total of 180 Form Four students in City Setar district secondary schools were examined using quasi experimental method. Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale (DASS) instrument was used for pre and posttests for eight weeks. The data were analyzed using the Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA) and Multivariate Analysis of Covariance (MANCOVA) to see the relationship between Calisthenics exercises and mental health levels of depression, anxiety and stress in pre and posttests of treatment and control groups. Overall, multivariate test results with wilks' Lambda showed that there were significant effects on the three dependent variables [F (6,524) = 2.20, p < 0.05) for posttest and pretest [F (6,262) = 13.95, p < 0.05). The findings showed that students who practice five minutes Calisthenics exercise can reduce depression, anxiety, and stress levels. In conclusion, the study showed that there is a significant relationship between five minutes Calisthenics exercise and depression, anxiety, and stress levels. Female gender had higher depression, anxiety, and stress levels in both tests. Also, the main conclusion is the pretest analysis showed a high level of anxiety, depression, and stress among the two groups but did not show a significant difference.