If the mental health of young people is at an all-time low after two years of the Covid-19 pandemic, one factor could protect them from high risks of anxiety and depression: team sports. According to one new study conducted by researchers at California State University and published on 1er june in the magazine Plos Onechildren playing team sports were 10% less likely to be anxious or depressed than their peers who did not practice it.
Conducted on 11,235 American children between the ages of 9 and 13, the study also showed that children participating in individual sports such as gymnastics, tennis or wrestling were 15% more at risk of developing anxiety, compared to those who did not exercise. For 10 years, participants filled out questionnaires (along with their parents), played games and puzzles to test their brain function, provided saliva samples, and took MRI scans. Their data was compared to a control group, which did not play sports.
A healthy sense of competition and more social interactions
According to researchers, team sports are a “vehicle to support child and youth mental health” and would instill in them a healthy sense of competition. They would also bring many emotional and behavioral benefitsin particular thanks tomany opportunities for positive social interactions“.
Conversely, individual sports increase the child’s or adolescent’s stress, especially when they perform in front of an audience, where they fear being judged by their appearance. They are also “very aware“expectations placed on them by their parents or coach, which can reinforce a feeling of anxiety and a”pressure to perform“. They also presented less attention problems.
Thus, children who played individual sports were 16% more likely to suffer from anxiety and 14% more at risk of being withdrawn.
This is the first time a study has suggested that playing individual sports can cause more mental health problems than no sports at all. “To our surprise, young people who only participated in individual sports, such as gymnastics or tennis, had more mental health problems than those who did not participate in organized sports.“, concluded the authors of this study.
Source :
- Associations between organized sport participation and mental health difficulties: Data from over 11,000 US children and adolescents, Plos OneJune 1, 2022
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