Sports participation beneficial for long-term mental health in children

Children who regularly participate in sports have better long-term psychosocial well-being, with team sports being more beneficial than individual sports, an 8-year longitudinal study has shown.

“Approximately 14 percent of Australian children aged 4–11 years experienced a mental disorder in the previous 12 months, with boys being more commonly affected than girls [17 percent vs 12 percent],” wrote the researchers. Sports participation is associated with children’s psychosocial well-being, but existing evidence is predominantly based on short-term longitudinal studies (2–4 years), which cannot capture different stages of development from childhood to adolescence. [J Adolesc Health 2023;doi:10.1016/j.jadohealth.2023.07.011]

To examine the long-term relationship between sports participation and well-being indicators as well as the difference between genders and preferred types of sports, the researchers collected data from the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (LSAC) in 2010 (n=4,242 children aged 6–7 years; boys, 51.6 percent) who were followed up until 2018 (n=3,127 adolescents aged 14–15 years). Sports participation included team sports (eg, football, cricket, netball) and individual sports (eg, karate, tennis, gymnastics). Outcomes including psychosocial difficulties and health-related quality of life (HRQoL) were assessed by the strengths and difficulties questionnaire score (SDQ) and paediatric quality of life inventory (PedsQL) score, respectively.

“Our study showed that [consistent] sports participation, either team, individual or both, was beneficially associated with [psychosocial] well-being of children,” the researchers reported.

Notably, team sports provided greater benefits relative to individual sports, while participation in both types of sports provided maximum benefits in terms of psychosocial difficulties (β, -0.75, -1.65 and -1.99 for individual sports, team sports, and both, respectively) and HRQoL (β, 2.23, 4.84 and 5.13, respectively).

“These positive results may be related to social aspects such as coaching, being surrounded by supportive peers, opportunities to form connections and friendships, and having a collaborative goal,” explained lead researcher, Dr Asad Khan of the School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia.

Team sports participation was associated with lower psychosocial difficulties (β, -1.78 vs -1.22) and higher HRQoL (β, 4.72 vs 3.44) in boys vs girls. “This may be explained by boys’ higher levels of team sports participation vs girls throughout the study period,” commented Khan. “As team sports participation yields considerable benefits to mental well-being, the current study underscores the need to identify ways to increase girls’ participation in team sports and understand the systemic barriers that prevent girls from participating.”

“Prolonged engagement in sports was associated with better psychosocial well-being in a dose-dependent manner,” added the researchers. “The cumulative effect of sports participation found in the current study confirms past findings that regular sports participation since childhood yields mental health benefits in adolescence.”

These findings suggest that children should be encouraged to regularly and consistently engage in sports, particularly team sports, to optimize their long-term psychosocial well-being.