A new study finds that adults who consistently participated in organized sports from a young age experience fewer symptoms of anxiety and depression than those who never participated or who stopped participating.
Additionally, people who stopped playing sports reported worse mental health than those who never played sports at all.
But far more people drop out of youth sports than stay in them through age 18, said Chris Norster, the study’s lead author and a professor of sociology at Ohio State University.
“Continuing to play a sport seems to be beneficial for your mental health, whereas playing and then quitting seems to be harmful, and most kids end up quitting,” Norster said.
The study, published today (June 26, 2024) in the Journal of Sociology of Sport, found that most people quit sports because they weren’t having fun or felt like they weren’t good enough, which suggests ways to improve youth sports for kids, said Laura Upenieks, an assistant professor of sociology at Baylor University and lead author of the study.
“Our findings about why kids drop out of organized sport suggest that the current environment is not ideal for everyone and that more attention needs to be paid to barriers to participation,” Upenieks said.
The study used data from the National Sport and Community Survey conducted by Ohio State University in 2018 and 2019. The survey included 3,931 adults nationwide who answered questions about their childhood sports participation and current anxiety and depression symptoms.
Results showed that 35% of participants never participated in organized sports, 41% participated but dropped out, and 24% continued participating until age 18.
People who consistently participated in organized sports while growing up reported lower symptoms of depression and anxiety than those who did not.
Players who dropped out were in the worst mental health, while those who never played fell somewhere in between.
Norster emphasized that most of the participants did not suffer from clinical levels of depression or anxiety, so the differences between the three groups were relatively small, but they were still significant.
The most common reason for dropping out was “not having fun,” cited by almost half of respondents (45%). The second most common reason was not feeling like they were a good enough player (31%). Other reasons for dropping out included wanting to focus on grades (16%), health problems or injuries (16%), not being able to spend money on sports (16%), having trouble with team members (15%), and being interested in other clubs or activities (14%).
Notably, 8% said they dropped out because they were abused by a coach.
Quitting sports is associated with worsening mental health, but “not all reasons for quitting have the same impact,” Upenieks said.
Interpersonal reasons for dropping out, such as not having fun, not getting along with team members, or being mistreated by a coach, were associated with symptoms of depression and anxiety in adults.
Those who could not afford sports or sports equipment also had poorer mental health.
However, students who dropped out to focus on their grades actually had lower levels of depression, the study found.
“Prioritizing education leads to better mental health outcomes in adulthood,” Noster says.
Much of the research to date has focused on the effects of playing or not playing sports on adult outcomes, but this study is one of the first to look at what happens when young people stop playing sports, and it shows that persistence is an important issue, Knoester said.
“Unfortunately, it’s not as simple as saying that playing sports is good for kids,” he says. “It’s complicated by whether kids stay in sports and the reasons they stay or stop.”
Upenieks said it’s easy to see why the sport is good for people who continue into adulthood.
“The longer young people are exposed to a positive and encouraging sport environment, the more likely they are to develop habits that lead to long-term mental health, such as engaging in regular exercise and working with others as part of a team,” she said.
The fact that so many kids drop out of sports shows that organized sports don’t always provide a positive environment, but there are steps adults can take to improve it.
First, sports must be safe for children. The fact that 8% of children said they had been abused by their coaches was particularly alarming, the researchers said.
Norster said studies that showed about half of kids quit because they weren’t having fun and about a third dropped out because they felt they weren’t good enough should also be a warning.
“We need to improve youth sports so that everyone has a positive experience and has more fun,” he said.
Winning is part of sport, but perhaps adults overemphasize that aspect and ruin the experience for many young people.
“Most kids just want to have fun with their friends and support and encourage each other,” Upenieks said. “They don’t need to be so serious.”
“Our findings suggest that depriving children of fun and making them feel inadequate can have cascading effects that undermine their self-esteem and confidence, which can reverberate into adulthood,” Norster added.
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