Vol.:(0123456789) Journal of Happiness Studies https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-019-00142-6 1 3 RESEARCH PAPER The Association Between Psychological Commitments to Team and Mental Health of Football Fans Within an Academic Setting Babatola Dominic Olawa 1  · Erhabor Sunday Idemudia 1  · Charles Sunday Umeh 2 © Springer Nature B.V. 2019 Abstract Several factors have been identifed as bufers against academic stress experienced by undergraduates but less attention has been given to the role of commitment to football club fan-ship. This study examined psychological commitments to fan-ship of European football clubs as a predictor of mental health of 300 undergraduates in a Nigerian university. Data were collected using structured psychological tests which include the Psychological Com- mitment to Team Scale, General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12) and Ryfs Psychological Well-Being Scale (PWB-18). Regression and one-way MANOVA were utilized for data analyses. Results indicated that psychological commitments to team associates with GHQ and PWB scores with variances of 8% and 17% respectively. Specifcally, for every one unit in psychological commitments to team, there was .41 rise in psychological well-being and .27 increase in general health. However, team afliation was not signifcant on GHQ and PWB scores. Based on fndings, it was suggested that academic environments should be structured to accommodate students’ interest in fan-ship of football clubs in order to ensure emotional wellness. Keywords Football club fan-ship · Commitment · Mental-health · Undergraduates 1 Introduction Studies have shown that the period of university education is accompanied with height- ened distress for students (Ansari et al. 2011; Bewick et al. 2010). This is refected in the relatively high prevalence rates of mental health problems reported for this segment of the * Babatola Dominic Olawa babatola.olawa@fuoye.edu.ng Erhabor Sunday Idemudia Erhabor.idemudia@nwu.ac.za Charles Sunday Umeh u.charles@yahoo.com 1 Life-Style and Disease Research Entity, North-West University, Mahikeng, South Africa 2 College of Medicine, University of Lagos, Lagos, Nigeria