Put Me In! Supported by Science: Youth Sports Involvement, Improved Health Outcomes, and the Individual vs. Team Sports Debate
My name is Lilia Kasdon and I am a Research Intern for Put Me In! I will be sharing some of my findings in this series of blog posts, Put Me In! Supported by Science.
If you missed last week’s post, check it out here.
I spent the past week diving into the literature on the benefits of youth sports participation, especially for children who have experienced trauma. I focused primarily on studies assessing the impacts of youth sports on health outcomes. In terms of mental health, Gore et al. (2001) suggest that sports involvement can serve as a “protection against depressed mood,” working with other protective factors to decrease depressive symptoms (Gore et al., p. 119).
Easterlin et al. (2019) focused specifically on the mental health effects of sports participation for children with Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs). The team found that for adolescents with a history of ACEs, there was an association between team sports involvement and improved long-term mental health outcomes (Easterlin et al., 2019). Easterlin and colleagues identified that children with ACEs who participated in sports were less likely to be diagnosed with ADHD and anxiety. As I explained in my first blog post, CIPs have significantly more ACEs than their peers (Turney, 2018). The increased exposure to ACEs associated with parental incarceration (PI) — in combination with the results from Easterlin et al.’s study — indicate that sports involvement may be especially beneficial for the mental health of CIPs. Put Me In! facilitates their engagement in these activities that have the potential to significantly improve their mental health, both immediately and in the long term.
Youth sports involvement also has profound impacts on physical health trajectories. In their 2019 study assessing the effects of youth sports involvement on Health Related Quality of Life (HRQoL), Moeijes et al. established that “membership of a sports club, moderate or high frequency of sports participation, and performing outdoor sports were all significantly associated with better HRQoL” (Moeijes et al., 2019, p. 1). In their paper, they underscore the fact that these positive effects were most pronounced in the physical health domain. Haynes and colleagues also highlight the positive physical health outcomes associated with youth sports participation in their 2021 longitudinal study examining the relationship between youth sports involvement and cardiorespiratory fitness. They found that consistent involvement in sports in childhood and adolescence is associated with better cardiorespiratory health into adulthood (Haynes et al., 2021). Thus, in addition to promoting the mental health of CIPs by providing them with the opportunity to participate in sports, PMI! facilitates improved physical health outcomes for these children.
In my research this week, I noticed that many studies discussed whether team sports or individual sports are more effective in promoting healthy development. The findings in this area are mixed, and researchers do not seem to agree. For example, while Vella et al. (2014) found that team sports have a more pronounced effect on well-being, Moeijes and colleagues discovered that “no significant differences in HRQoL were observed between children performing individual sports, children performing team sports, and children performing both individual and team sports” (Moeijes et al., 2019, p. 1). Due to the mixed results on whether team sports or individual sports are more impactful, it is notable that Put Me In! allows children to try both types of sports, encouraging them to choose what they most enjoy. This ability to choose the sports they participate in — whether they be team or individual — allows CIPs to reclaim agency, working against the circumstances leading up to and following their parent’s incarceration that strip them of this control over their own life trajectories.
Works cited:
Gore, S., Farrell, F., & Gordon, J. (2001). Sports involvement as protection against depressed mood. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 11(1), 119–130. https://doi.org/10.1111/1532-7795.00006
Haynes, A., McVeigh, J., Hissen, S. L., Howie, E. K., Eastwood, P. R., Straker, L., Mori, T. A., Beilin, L., Ainslie, P. N., & Green, D. J. (2021). Participation in sport in childhood and adolescence: Implications for adult fitness. Journal of science and medicine in sport, 24(9), 908–912. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsams.2021.05.004
Moeijes, J., van Busschbach, J. T., Wieringa, T. H., Kone, J., Bosscher, R. J., & Twisk, J. W. R. (2019). Sports participation and health-related quality of life in children: results of a cross-sectional study. Health and quality of life outcomes, 17(1), 64. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12955-019-1124-y
Turney, K. (2018). Adverse childhood experiences among children of incarcerated parents. Children and Youth Services Review, 89, 218-225. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2018.04.033
Vella, S. A., Cliff, D. P., Magee, C. A., & Okely, A. D. (2014). Sports participation and parent-reported health-related quality of life in children: longitudinal associations. The Journal of pediatrics, 164(6), 1469–1474. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpeds.2014.01.071