Although it is said that university graduates who belonged to an athletic club are mentally superior, there has been no quantitative data to support this issue. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to compare the mental components of graduates who belonged to an athletic club while in university (“TAIIKUKAIKEI”) with those of non-athletic club graduates by means of a cross-sectional study. Participants of this study were 5,776 young workers within 10 years of graduation from a certain university in Tokyo. Half of the subjects had belonged to an athletic club in university and the other half had not. Participants were asked about demographic data and current subjective happiness, psychological stress, and work engagement. They were invited to participate in the survey through a mailed document containing the URL for the survey website, which could be accessed via a PC or a smartphone. The number of valid responses to the questionnaire was 521 (response rate of 9.0%). Excluding those who had left the club during their university years and those who were unemployed, the number of participants was 477 (246 athletic club graduates and 231 non-athletic club graduates). Results of the analysis of covariance, with gender, age, marital status, and current annual income as covariates, confirmed the hypothesis that athletic club graduates had higher current subjective happiness and work engagement and lower current psychological stress than non-athletic club graduates. Therefore, in the analyses of working graduates, the mental components of athletic club graduates were found to be relatively more favorable after graduation than those of non-athletic club graduates, although the sizes of the effects were small. However, it is worthwhile to note that empirical data revealed that the subjective happiness, psychological stress, and work engagement of athletic club graduates are favorable. In the future, it is expected that a longitudinal follow-up study of the same individuals will be conducted, and more qualitative characteristics of athletic club graduates will be investigated.
