Healthy Gaming

Esports and Health

With this health and wellness initiative, NASEF is making strides to positively support and improve the health and well-being of ALL students.

Well-being is far more than just being healthy.  Students who are well are confident, satisfied and have a positive outlook on their lives. They have strong relationships, feel valued and have social and emotional skills that provide the strength during challenging times. Students who have a high sense of well-being are also more successful in school and on their teams.  Studies show that these students have fewer absences, are more focused and have higher achievement in school.

Making the right choices about nutrition, sleep, exercise and friendships is challenging, and scholar gamers face additional hurdles to achieve a sense of health and wellness. Having energy, feeling connected to others, and following their passions helps students practice better, play better, and game better. Having these skills on the teams transfers to our lives and to our communities. When our scholar gamers are well, our esports ecosystem is better.

NASEF, along with its partners the Susan Samueli Integrative Health Institute, UCI Esports, Dr. Wayne Jonas, and the San Diego County Department of Education partnered to create a health and wellness framework for scholastic esports. This framework addresses four domains of youth life that reveal skills and attributes that impact health and well-being. Against the backdrop of scholastic esports, “Play Well. Be Well.”, offers structure and support for activities, lesson plans and resources to help educators and scholastic esports leaders integrate a successful wellness element to their esports program.