Original article
Years Participating in Sports During Childhood Predicts Mental Health in Adolescence: A 5-Year Longitudinal Study

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jadohealth.2018.11.024Get rights and content

Abstract

Purpose

Sport participation promotes mental health and prevents mental illness. However, the association between specific sport profiles and mental health has not been examined. We investigate the longitudinal association between number of years with a recreational or performance sport profile and mental health during adolescence and whether these associations differ by sex.

Methods

Participants (n = 318, 58.2% female) reported participation in sport every 4 months over 5 years, from ages 10–11 to 14–15 years. Each year, they were categorized as recreational or performance sport participants or as nonparticipants. Mental health was assessed at age 15–16 years. Multivariate linear regression was used to model the association between number of years (0–5) with a recreational and performance sport profile and mental health, controlling for sex, age, income, and age at puberty.

Results

A recreational sport profile for ≥2 years was associated with better mental health compared with 0 years of recreational sport participation; the strongest association was observed for a recreational sport profile of 4–5 years (βˆ [95% confidence interval]: 10.29 [2.60, 17.98]). A performance sport profile for ≥1 year was associated with better mental health in late adolescence compared with 0 years of performance sport participation; the strongest association was observed for a performance sport profile of 4–5 years (βˆ [95% confidence interval]: 19.48 [9.50, 29.46]). No differences by sex were observed.

Conclusion

Both recreational and performance sport profiles in childhood and early adolescence are positively associated with mental health in late adolescence. To promote mental health, strategies to encourage youth to engage and remain involved in sport are warranted.

Section snippets

Methods

Data were drawn from the Monitoring Activities of Teenagers to Comprehend their Habits (MATCH) study, an ongoing investigation [26] of participants recruited in grade 5 and 6 in 17 schools in New Brunswick, Canada. A total of 802 participants (51% of those eligible) age 10.3 ± .6 years on average were enrolled in the first year. Additional students joined the study in the second to fourth year for a total of 937 children (55.2% female). Data were collected in self-report questionnaires every

Results

In years 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5, 765, 703, 674, 582, and 532 participants, respectively, provided data in at least two of the three data collection cycles over the year. A total of 496 participants were classified by sport profile in four or five of the first 5 years, and 394 had complete data on mental health in year 6; of 394 participants, 318 with data on both variables were retained for analysis (Figure 1). Mean (standard deviation [SD]) age at inception was 10.2 (.6) years in both girls and

Discussion

Because sport participation is associated with mental health benefits [6], [7], [9], numerous authors call for widespread promotion of sport. However, few studies examine whether involvement in recreational or performance sport relates differently to mental health. Our study extends past research [4], [5], [6], [7], [8], [34] by investigating the longitudinal association between sport profile and mental health in youth. We found that, compared with nonparticipation, both sport profiles are

Acknowledgments

I.D. is supported by a Fonds de recherche du Québec—Santé postdoctoral fellowship, C.M.S. holds a Canada Research Chair in Physical Activity and Mental Health, M.-P.S. holds a Junior 1 Salary Award from the Fonds de recherche du Québec—Santé, J.O.L. holds a Canada Research Chair in the Early Determinants of Adult Chronic Disease.

Authors' contributions: I.D. conceptualized the objectives, conducted all analyses, and drafted and revised the article. C.M.S., M.-P.S., P.A.N., F.G., J.B., and

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    Conflicts of interest: The authors have indicated that they have no conflicts of interest to disclose.

    Financial disclosure: The authors have indicated that they have no financial relationships relevant to this article to disclose.

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