Role Of Football Addiction And Extraversion In Football Depression Among Nigerian Youths

Abstract

This study examined the role of football addiction and extraversion in football depression. Two hundred (200) undergraduates of the University of Nigeria, Nsuka participated in the study. Three scales were used for data collection and they included: Football Depression Scale (FDS), Football Addiction Scale (FAS) and the Big Five Inventory- Extraversion Scale (BFI-E). A crosssectional survey design was employed and a 2 × 2 Analysis of Variance was used to analyze the data. The results of the study revealed that the two main effects significantly influenced the experience of football depression. Specifically, football addiction significantly influenced the experience of football depression at F (1,196) = 38.97, p<.001. Similarly, extraversion significantly influenced students’ experience of football depression at F (1, 196) = 5.27, p<.05. There was no interaction effect between football addiction and extraversion in the experience of football depression. The results were discussed in the context of students as football fans who have great deal of passion and are also likely to experience some loss (depression). It was concluded that as football activities continue to dominate the world of sports, psychologists and other therapists in the helping profession should initiate rescue strategies to help the youths to cope with football depression.

Keywords: Football addiction; extraversion; football depression.