In the Monitoring the Future surveys (biannual national surveys of high school student health and behaviors funded by the National Institutes of Health) from 2010 to 2015, teenagers who participated in team sports were more likely to describe higher self-esteem and lower levels of loneliness. It is important to note that it has been difficult to establish the causal direction of the association between team sports and mental health in youth. We need more prospective randomized controlled trials to assert that the benefit is not simply an artifact of healthier youth choosing to participate in sports, but actually an active consequence of that choice. For now, though, we can say with confidence that physical activity promotes good mental health in youth and may protect against mental illness.
Dr. Michael S. Jellinek
While student athletes benefit from the opportunity to develop deep social connections – ones forged in the intense setting of competition, collaboration, and sustained teamwork – they also benefit from strong mentorship connections with adults, including coaches, trainers, and even the parents of teammates who participate in all of the efforts that go into team sports in youth. While it might seem that all of the mental and physical benefits must be offset by lower academic performance, it turns out that is not the case. It is well established that regular exercise promotes healthy cognitive function, including processing speed, working memory, and even creativity. According to data from the Monitoring the Future survey, adolescents who participated in team sports were more likely to have As and to plan on attending a 4-year college than were their nonathlete peers.
Beyond the physiologic and social benefits of exercise, team sports provide adolescents with a powerful opportunity to get comfortable with failure. Even the best athletes cannot win all the time, and sports are unique in building failure into the work. Practice is almost entirely about failure, gradually getting better at something that is difficult. While everyone aims to win, they also prepare to struggle and lose. Athletes must learn how to persevere through a match that they are losing, and then pick themselves up and prepare again for the next match. When young people get comfortable with facing and managing challenges, managing setbacks and failure, they are ready to face the larger challenges, setbacks, and failures of adult life.
Team sports enable young people to learn what they are actually capable of managing – they build resilience. This promotion of resilience is illustrated in recent research that demonstrated that team sports may be especially protective for young people who have experienced trauma (adverse childhood experiences, or “ACEs”). Researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles, followed teenagers with and without high ACE scores into their mid 20s. They found that those with high ACE scores who participated in team sports as adolescents were 24% less likely to have depression and 30% less likely to have anxiety diagnoses as adults, compared with their peers who did not participate in team sports.2
Of course, the details matter in team sports. If your patients are participating and they or their parents are worried about spending so much time on something other than homework, talk to them about all of these exceptional benefits of team sports. But the culture of the team matters also. Some teams may be focused on winning at all costs, or have a practice culture that is humiliating or bullying. Some teams may have a culture of partying after games, with binge drinking and drug use. Ask your patients about whether they feel they are respected members of the team, and if effort and sportsmanship are valued as well as performance. Do they trust their coaches? Do they believe their coaches know and care about them? If your patients are not participating in a team sport, encourage them to find one (or more) that engage their interests. The benefits of track and field, crew, and tennis can be just as robust as the benefits of football or soccer. Speak with your patients and their parents about the payoff for their physical, mental, and developmental health the time and effort they are putting into a team sport can provide.
Dr. Swick is physician in chief at Ohana, Center for Child and Adolescent Behavioral Health, Community Hospital of the Monterey (Calif.) Peninsula. Dr. Jellinek is professor emeritus of psychiatry and pediatrics, Harvard Medical School, Boston. Email them at pdnews@mdedge.com.
References
1. Int J Nutr Phys Act. 2013 Aug 15. doi: 10.1186/1479-5868-10-98.