Extra-curricular sport participation: A potential buffer against social anxiety symptoms in primary school children☆

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Abstract

Objectives

Social anxiety (SA) is characterized by high anxiety in social situations and can be significantly debilitating in its long-term duration. In the case of children it additionally has a negative impact on the child’s social and cognitive development. As reported in Wipfli, Rethorst, and Landers’ (2008) meta-analysis, exercise does have an anxiolytic effect. In this study, the role of sport as a mediating variable in the onset or development of SA symptoms is investigated, where a similar effect on this specific anxiety-type is expected.

Design

This repeated-measures cohort study includes two data collections. The first data collection was carried out in 2007 and the second a year later in 2008.

Method

Two hundred and eight 7- to 8-year old Swiss primary school children participated in structured interviews. Parents and teachers completed questionnaires regarding children’s SA symptoms and classroom behaviour respectively. Parents also provided information about their children’s extra-curricular sport activities. The same information was gathered a year later.

Results

Although most differences were not statistically significant a pattern emerged: children practising sport tended to score lower on all instruments in both 2007 and 2008. Repeated-measures analysis of variance indicated a reduction in social anxiety over time in children practising a team sport.

Conclusion

These results are interpreted in reference to a potential positive effect of team sport on a child’s experience of anxiety in social situations based on Antonovsky’s (1997) salutogenesis model and Bandura’s (1977) social learning theory.

Highlights

► Children practising team sports exhibited a decrease in social anxiety over time. ► No effect on children’s social anxiety in the case of individual sport. ► Number of sport hours per week revealed no effect on social anxiety over time.

Section snippets

A definition of social anxiety

Social anxiety disorder refers to a “marked and persistent fear of social or performance situations in which embarrassment may occur” (DSM-IV-TR; APA, 2000, p. 450) and is usually accompanied by physical symptoms such as sweating, trembling, etc. which may escalate into a panic attack (Keller, 2003). This disorder typically appears during adolescence with a peak onset at about 15 years of age (Lecrubier et al., 2000). An epidemiological study (ESEMeD/MHEDEA 2000 Investigators, 2004) reporting

Theoretical framework

This study is based on previous findings related to general and social anxiety as well as on two theoretical perspectives: Antonovsky’s (1997) salutogenesis model and the theory of social learning (Bandura, 1977).

Research hypotheses

H1

Children practising an extra-curricular sport should report less social anxiety symptoms a year later than children practising no sport.

This hypothesis needs to be qualified in two respects. Firstly, physical exercise was reported to reduce general anxiety in both general and clinical populations (e.g. Biddle and Mutrie, 2001, Raglin, 1997, Wipfli et al., 2008) and thus a similar effect with this specific type of anxiety is hypothesized. Secondly, sport practice could be considered as a GRR as

Sample

Parental permission to interview 208 7- to 9-year old children (mean age = 7.86 years, SD = 1.01) was received (R = 27.4%). The sample included an equal number of boys and girls at the first data collection point. Out of these 208 children, 175 could be interviewed in schools due to limitations posed by the school authorities (not more than 6 children per class could be interviewed). Teachers returned 169 assessments out of the required 175.

All children in this sample attended first and second grades

Data screening and descriptive analysis

Missing variables were analyzed using the Missing Value Analysis (MVA) procedure. Only the data collected from the teachers had more than 3% missing values. However, following Little’s MCAR test the assumption of values missing completely at random could be used (χ2(8, N = 145) = 10.85, p = .21).

Standardized scores and box plots were employed to detect univariate outliers while multivariate outliers were identified using Mahalanobis distances (Tabachnick & Fidell, 2001). It was observed that the same

Discussion

Various research efforts have investigated the influence of sport participation on mental health. Most findings reported a positive effect of physical exercise on a person’s general psychological well-being as well as on specific areas of mental health, such as depression and anxiety. Such findings lead to further enquiries, where not only the effect of sport on particular conditions is investigated but also the role of sport as a buffer starting from a young age is explored. Social anxiety

Conclusion

Notwithstanding these shortcomings, this study provides two important points to be considered and to be explored in more detail. The first is the effect of the type of sport rather than the intensity of sport practice in relation to social anxiety symptoms, hence challenging Wipfli et al.’s (2008) dose–response hypothesis. Sport practice appears to help socially anxious children when practised in a social context with other same-aged children. This finding could support the inclusion of team

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    ☆

    This research was supported by the Confederate Sport Commission (Switzerland).

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