Team Sports Boost Mental Health in Youth

Coaches are fond of the saying that there's no "I" in "team." Parents may be heartened to learn that there's less depression, anxiety, and other mental health problems in team sports, too.

Youth who play team sports appear to enjoy better mental health than those who don't, according to a new study that aligns with previous research indicating that sports provide a positive social outlet and a sense of belonging. The researchers, from Canada and the United States, also found that girls who played organized team sports and individual sports reported less risky behaviors than girls who did not play sports at all.

However, the study showed that kids who compete only in individual sports — think tennis, wrestling, and gymnastics — appeared to have worse outcomes than nonathletes, suggesting that the emotional benefits of sports may come largely from group participation.

"Team sport allows kids to develop friendships with peers and feel a sense of belonging within their groups," said Matthieu Hoffmann, PhD, assistant professor of kinesiology at California State University, Fullerton, and leader of the new study. "Kids learn teamwork skills and work together to overcome conflict. These are all positive factors that may protect against mental health problems."

Studies show that individual sports can increase stress and performance anxiety. Hoffman said these experiences can be isolating, especially because individual athletes often shoulder much of the burden of poor performances. For certain individual sports, such as ballet and gymnastics, poor perception of body image could also play a role.

In the new study, published in the journal PLOS ONE, investigators analyzed data from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) study, an ongoing look at brain development in 11,235 US children aged 9 to 13 years.

Parents of children participating in the study filled out the Child Behavioral Checklist (CBCL), a questionnaire designed to detect emotional and behavioral problems in youth, including depression, anxiety, withdrawal, socialization, and others. For the study, parents respond to general questions with answers that can range from not true, somewhat or sometimes true, and very often or always true.

The new study found that children who played exclusively team sports scored lower in their parent's self-reported answers to the CBCL, indicating various mental health difficulties. These children presented with 10% lower anxiety and depression scores, held 19% lower scores pertaining to withdrawn behavior, and scored 17% lower in social anxiety and thought problems, such strange behaviors behaviors and ideas, seeing things or hearing things, or having a hard time getting one's mind off certain thoughts. They also scored 12% lower in attention problems.