2nd Edition: Physical Activity and Mental Health

Dear Colleagues,

We are organizing a Special Issue focused on the role of physical activity in the enhancement of mental health and the prevention and care within mental illness for the journal Sports. This is a peer-reviewed scientific journal that publishes articles and communications in the interdisciplinary area of sport sciences and public health. For detailed information about the journal, we refer you to https://www.mdpi.com/journal/sports.

For this Special Issue we are interested in research related to the role of physical activity across the mental health continuum: from enhancing psychological well-being, to preventing, treating, and managing the health of people living with mental illness. In this context, mental illness refers to diagnoses of addictions, mood-related disorders (e.g., depression), psychosis, and personality disorders. Physical activity is used in the broadest sense to include sport, exercise, walking, yoga, and any other bodily movement.

It is well-documented that physical activity is important in the prevention, treatment, and management of mental illness, in addition to having a clear role in supporting the physical health of people living with serious mental illness. Therefore, physical activity can be a crucial tool in addressing health inequities in this vulnerable population (Firth et al., 2019).

We particularly welcome manuscripts that offer novel insights into the relationships between physical activity and mental illness (e.g., social, neurological, and psychological explanations); describe innovative and/or scalable physical-activity-based interventions within mental healthcare; explore the role of the physical activity environment (e.g., nature, social) in preventing and enhancing recovery from mental illness; and describe interventions aligned with Indigenous approaches to physical activity promotion.

This Special Issue is open to any subject area related to physical activity and mental health. The listed keywords suggest just a few of the many possibilities.

Prof. Dr. Eric E. Hall
Dr. Matthew Jenkins
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-anonymized peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sports is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1800 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.