Pros and Cons of Team Sports: Building Resilience

Introduction

As children, many of us consider going out and playing with our friends some of the biggest 'rewards' that our parents could give us. Now, aside from getting children a sufficient amount of exercise and adequate exposure to sunlight or vitamin D, several studies have proven that play, especially unconstructive play, allows children to hone and develop their emotional, physical, and social skills. Furthermore, play is also very essential to children’s overall growth and development because this helps them experience new sensations and develop skills to adapt to certain situations and people — which are greatly beneficial for their later lives. However, it's important to consider the pros and cons of team sports in this context.

Team Sports: Impact on Mental Conditions

A recent study published in the JAMA Pediatrics spearheaded by Molly C. Easterlin, M.D, from the University of California in Los Angeles, states that participating in team play in particular, such as sports, can lower the risk of developing mental health conditions such as anxiety and depression among people who have been victims of childhood trauma or other traumatic events, according to the technology news website, Tech Times.

Easterlin reveals that, before the study was conducted, she used to love playing sports during her childhood. In an interview with the radio news program, National Public Radio, she revealed that she had played soccer at the age of 4, as well as tennis, and track-and-field during her high school years. According to her, sports was the best way she developed her skills since it taught her discipline, teamwork, and other important lessons that have been proven to be beneficial growing up.

However, once she became a pediatrician, Easterlin said that she experienced meeting children truggling with traumatic experiences such as physical abuse and emotional neglect. Many of them weren’t extremely responsive to therapy and treatment. This is why she decided to find out whether or not participating in team sports during your adolescence can create a powerful impact on young adults, especially those who have been victims of childhood adversity, reports the National Public Radio. In the study, Easterlin’s team analyzed data which was composed of 9,668 individuals — all of whom had been participants of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health. At the time, they were between the grades of 7th and 12th Grade, from 1994 to 1995, according to the open-source medicine and health news website, Medical Xpress. Furthermore, Tech Times states that another study was conducted on the same participants 14 years later in 2008, where they were adults.

Socioeconomic Factors of Team Sports

During the first wave of the study, the participants were asked if they were participating or had any plans to participate in any team sports. The second wave involved the researchers asking whether the participants had been diagnosed with any kind of mental health condition, particularly with anxiety or depression. Those who answered that they hadn’t were then tested for symptoms. In the end, the researchers found that the adolescents who participated in team sports had a significantly lower risk of being diagnosed with depression or anxiety. They were also less likely to be at risk of depressive symptoms. The National Public Radio adds that these findings were significantly stronger among boys than girls, but Easterlin believes that this might be because during the years 1994 to 1995, girls’ sports were not as well-funded and supported as they are today.

On the other hand, when the researchers looked at participants who joined non-athletic clubs like drama and orchestra, data showed that these children were not safe from depressive symptoms and mental health conditions, as compared to the participants who reported participating in team sports during their adolescent years. Although they were unable to point it out, Easterlin's team believes that teamwork was a primary factor and “there may be something powerful about that team environment [in sports], where you're in competition, being coached in a certain way and interacting with your teammates towards a common goal,” they wrote in the study, via the National Public Radio.

Previous studies have found that traumatic events during childhood, such as childhood abuse and other forms of childhood adversity, had a significant relationship with social and physical problems experienced by an individual throughout their whole life. This ranges from obesity to chronic depression, according to the National Public Radio. In addition, Amanda Paluch, a Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine student who was not involved in the study, states that young people who belong to low-income families are often the victims of adverse childhood experiences, and they are less likely to engage or participate in team sports because of the lack of access.

Conclusion

In conclusion, a published report by the Aspen Institute stated that children who belong to families that earn only $50,000 annually have had lower rates of participating in sports over the last decade. The researchers hope that their findings serve as a call for policymakers to boost sports participation among young adults — especially those who have experiences with childhood adversity, according to Tech Times.

References

1. Easterlin, M. C., Chung, P. J., & Leng, M. (2023). Association of Team Sports Participation With Long-term Mental Health Outcomes Among Individuals Exposed to Adverse Childhood Experiences. JAMA Pediatrics.

2. National Public Radio. (2023). Team Sports Can Be a Shield Against Childhood Trauma. Retrieved from https://www.npr.org/2023/05/22/1004535645/team-sports-can-be-a-shield-against-childhood-trauma

3. Tech Times. (2023). Team Sports Lower Risk of Depression, Anxiety in Victims of Childhood Trauma: Study. Retrieved from https://www.techtimes.com/articles/270125/20230523/team-sports-lower-risk-of-depression-anxiety-in-victims-of-childhood-trauma-study.htm

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4. Medical Xpress. (2023). Participation in team sports linked to fewer depressive symptoms in young adulthood. Retrieved from https://medicalxpress.com/news/2023-05-team-sports-linked-depressive-symptoms.html