Social media, mental health and equestrian events

Abstract

PROBLEM / OPPORTUNITY STATEMENT Over the last two decades event outcomes have predominantly been documented as positive to continue their growth, foster positive feelings and semantic memories from attendees, performers, or competitors, or to satisfy stakeholders from an economic perspective. We must be more critical of events if we wish them to be useful for human and community growth. As event impacts are intertwined with our psychological, sociological, and ultimately our longitudinal physiological health it is important we examine them carefully and critically. This research begins to unravel the potentially uneven relationships and thus the problems in respect of social media, mental health, and equestrian events. ABSTRACT Equestrian sport provides an interesting context in which to explore the connections of mental health and social media usage. Equestrians have been shown to engage with social media for knowledge sharing and community building. However, this can sometimes lead to the spread of misinformation and reinforcing boundaries and hierarchies within equestrian subcultures. The issue of bullying has come to the fore in the equestrian world in recent years, with the international sport governing body – the Federation Internationale Equestre (FEI) – considering implementing social media policies for athletes and officials to try and safeguard participants and reduce cyber abuse. Equestrianism is unusual in sporting terms as one of the few sports in which men and women, boys, and girls, compete together on equal terms at all levels of competition. Research shows that female equestrians were less exposed to gendered insults in the media, perhaps in part due to the lack of formal sex-based divisions. Equestrianism also provides opportunity for physical activity across the lifespan: riding is popular with both children and older people, particularly women. The reported prevalence of online bullying is therefore worrying in that it detracts from other, more positive, aspects of equestrian sport and exposes participants to negative experiences which may affect their mental health. We used convenience sampling to recruit equestrian competitors aged 18-65 who had at least one personal social media account (Facebook, TikTok, Twitter/X, Instagram or YouTube) and regularly posted or interacted with others’ posts about competing in equestrian events (dressage, eventing, show jumping), we then employed a mixed methods survey (quant>QUAL) (n=229) to achieve the following objectives of the study: i) to establish whether there is a link between social media and mental health of the participants of equestrian events; ii) to identify the factors within social media that may contribute to a decline in participants’ mental health and whether there is a specific demographic that may be more susceptible to the effects of social media; and iii) to make recommendations on improvements to support participants throughout their sporting events. Findings from this study provide insight into the ways in which amateur female equestrian athletes are using social media and the impact it is having on their mental health. As a new behavioral code of conduct for social media usage of those involved in all areas of equestrian sport are set to be introduced by the FEI (Federation Equestre International) in the new year, identifying negative and derogatory comments as one area where the medium is being used negatively, there is a need to further understand the other ways in which the use of social media can be damaging to the mental health of equestrian athletes. This study therefore adds timely and much needed insight into the use and subsequent consequences of social media on sport event participants and has the potential to inform debates on the topic, which are currently ongoing within the FEI.