Original article
School Sport Participation During Adolescence and Mental Health in Early Adulthood

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jadohealth.2014.04.018Get rights and content

Abstract

Purpose

This longitudinal study examined the association between participation in school sport during adolescence and mental health in early adulthood.

Methods

Adolescents (n = 853) reported participation in school sport in each grade throughout the 5 years of secondary school. In early adulthood, participants reported depressive symptoms, level of stress, and self-rated mental health.

Results

Involvement in school sport during adolescence was a statistically significant predictor of lower depression symptoms, lower perceived stress, and higher self-rated mental health in young adulthood.

Conclusions

School sport participation may protect against poor mental health in early adulthood. Policies to increase school sport participation may be warranted as part of public health strategies to promote mental health.

Section snippets

Methods

Data were drawn from the Nicotine Dependence in Teens study, an ongoing prospective cohort study of 1,293 students (52% female) that recruited from grade 7 classes in 1999 in a convenience sample of 10 secondary schools in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Schools were specifically chosen to represent a range of geographic locations (urban, suburban, and rural), languages (French and English), and socioeconomic status. In-school self-report questionnaires were administered every 3 months during the

Results

Of the 880 participants who completed survey cycle 21, 853 provided complete data on the variables of interest and were therefore included in the analytic sample. Participants (54% female) had a mean age of 20.4 years, and 6% reported a mood disorder diagnosis (Table 1). On average, participants engaged in school sport during 2 of the 5 years of secondary school.

Depressive symptoms were positively correlated with perceived stress (r = .46, p = .01) and negatively correlated with self-rated

Discussion

We investigated the association between school sport participation during secondary school and each of depressive symptoms, perceived stress, and self-rated mental health measured 3 years after graduation from secondary school. Our hypothesis was supported in that school sport participation was statistically significantly associated with all three mental health indicators, while controlling for extracurricular sport participation and sociodemographic characteristics. These findings extend the

Funding Sources

The Nicotine Dependence in Teens Study is funded by the Canadian Cancer Society (grant numbers 010271 and 017435). J.O.L. holds a Canada Research Chair in the Early Determinants of Adult Chronic Disease.

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    Conflicts of Interest: The authors have no conflicts of interest or financial disclosures to report.

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