Often, the thought of engaging in sports has been equated with the state of being in good mental health. Through many different studies it has been proven that playing sports has a psychologically beneficial impact on women. Not only does playing sports have a helpful impact on anxiety, depression, emotion, and mood, but it also has a constructive effect on self-esteem and body image. Many women suffer from having a negative body image, but playing sports has been a great solution toward improving women's self-confidence and self-esteem. The positive psychological effects that playing sports has on women directly has a positive effect on women's health as well.
             Playing sports has an anxiety reducing effect on women. Physical activity over a long duration of time can reduce trait anxiety; also moderate aerobic exercise is most likely to result in the reductions in state anxiety. Participating in sports can reduce short-term physiological reactivity to and enhance recovery from stressors. This has been shown in studies, which have used subjective self-report measures of anxiety as well as those that have used objective measures of physiological stimulation. "Since the early 1980's studies have shown that physically active women suffer less from stress and stress associated illnesses than the non-active."(Brown, J Staying Fit and Staying Well: Physical Fitness as a moderator of life stress.)
             Women who participate in sports are linked to decreased depression. The women who are more physically active are less likely to develop depression. Depression can often be the consequence of long-term stress and symptoms often occur with anxiety. Although drug therapy still tends to be the most frequent used treatment to depression there is evidence to show that exercise can have both preventative as well as rehabilitative properties with regard to depression. "The anti-depressant effect of playing s...