Canadian Journal of Behavioural Science / Revue canadienne des sciences du comportement, Vol 58(3), Jul 2026, 180-191; doi:10.1037/cbs0000458
University students experience developmental and academic stressors that can predispose them to mental illness symptoms. Sport participation is known to prevent perceived stress and symptoms of mental illness. However, participation in competitive sport may have mixed effects on mental health due to performance pressure. This study aimed (a) to determine whether the number of stressors per category, perceived stress and mental illness symptoms vary with levels of sport participation (competitive, recreational and nonparticipation) and (b) to explore whether sport participation levels moderate associations between stressors, perceived stress (mediator) and mental illness symptoms in university students. To this end, 1,175 university students completed an online survey. Competitive sport was associated with less anxiety and depressive symptoms than nonparticipation and fewer anxiety symptoms than recreational sport, which was associated with fewer depressive symptoms than nonparticipation. Perceived stress mediated most associations between stressor categories and mental illness symptoms. Moreover, sport participation levels moderated the association between academic stressors and perceived stress, highlighting a different symptom development process for competitive sport students. Thus, encouraging recreational and competitive sports participation, addressing avoidable stressors (e.g. academic issues) and intervening on perceived stress seem essential to prevent the onset of mental illness symptoms in this population. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved)