ReviewThe impact of sport and physical activity on the well-being of combat veterans: A systematic review
Section snippets
Focus of the review: well-being
Well-being is important to focus on since it is a key indicator of psychological functioning and positive human health (Ryan & Deci, 2001). There are two kinds of well-being associated with the literature on positive human health. The first is termed Subjective Well-Being (SWB). SWB is purportedly comprised of a person's subjectively perceived satisfaction with their life and the balance of positive and negative emotions they feel. As Diener (2000) suggests, the experience of SWB is
Search strategy
Key databases were searched including SPORTDiscus, PsychARTICLES, PsychINFO, Web of Science, Scopus, and Medline. These databases are similar to those used for other systematic reviews in sport and exercise (e.g., Jefferies et al., 2012, Swann et al., 2012). The primary search was supplemented by hand searching of relevant journals, citation searching of all articles accepted at abstract, and by contacting lead authors in the field in order to identify articles that may not have been indexed in
Results
Following the process of gathering and analysing the literature, it was found that the majority of findings (except for the additional category of motivation) fell into the domain of either subjective or psychological well-being. Accordingly, study findings are presented and reviewed below under the two broad categories of SWB and PWB. That said, it is acknowledged that there is likely to be overlap between these two categories, with well-being in one domain affecting well-being in the other.
Discussion
This review evaluated the impact of different sports and physical activities upon the subjective and psychological well-being of disabled combat veterans and veterans diagnosed with PTSD. Findings from the 11 studies reviewed revealed that participating in these various activities can have a positive influence on many facets of life related to both SWB and PWB in veterans. That is, sport and/or physical activity has the potential not only to provide enjoyable and pleasurable experiences for
Conclusion
This review provides the first synthesis of empirical evidence on the impact of sport and physical activity upon the well-being of combat veterans. As such, it offers a key resource for evidence based practice and for informing policy and decision making in this area (Grant & Booth, 2009). Findings identified multiple positive affects upon the subjective and psychological well-being of combat veterans, as well as on motivation. We also identified several areas of caution that researchers and
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