A study has shown that playing sports at a young age improves the mental of those of who participate further in life. A study from University of Montreal published a study on September 23 focusing on boys around the middle school age. The study showed that boys who participated in sports at a young age were less likely to experience depressive and anxiety symptoms.
The study was led by psychoeducator, Marie-Josée Harbec, and she stated,
“We wanted to clarify the long-term and reciprocal relationship in school-aged children between participation in sports and depressive and anxiety symptoms.” She then later states
“There’s widespread evidence of a crisis these days in childhood physical inactivity, and this may ultimately have implications for later mental and physical health.”
The findings of the study showed that the boys that they observed who exhibited higher levels of depressive and anxious symptoms during middle school had a history of being less active before the age of 12. Those who were psychically active before the age of 12 showed lower levels of these mental health symptoms.
Findings show that participating in sports overall helps people later on in life. The study states,
“Boys who engage in sport in preschool might benefit from physical activities that help them develop life skills such as taking initiative, engaging in teamwork and practicing self-control, and build supportive relationships with their peers and adult coaches and instructors.”
This does not answer the question on how does sports impact young girls later in life. The study says that girls are more likely to seek help from friends and family when they are feeling emotional distress. The study also brings up societal reasons of why young girls are more intuitive with their mental health. They state since girls often experience more emotional distress because of the pressure society puts on girls at a young age so they learn how to better deal with distress because they are exposed to it very early on.
The reason for this study, in Harbec’s words, is “Our goal was to eliminate any pre-existing conditions of the children or families that could throw a different light on our results, such as child temperament, parental education or family income,” she said. More studies that focus on the mental health of children could lead to a better handling of mental health in adults and also how to prevent this issues from rising in the first place.
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