Longitudinal Association between Sport Participation and Depressive Symptoms after a Two-Year Follow-Up in Mid-Adolescence

Diego Gómez-Baya, Luis Calmeiro, Tânia Gaspar, Adilson Marques, Nuno Loureiro, Miguel Peralta, Ramón Mendoza and Margarida Gaspar de Matos
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Diego Gómez-Baya: Department of Social, Developmental and Educational Psychology, Universidad de Huelva, 21071 Huelva, Spain
Luis Calmeiro: School of Applied Sciences, Abertay University, Dundee DD1 1HG, UK
Tânia Gaspar: School of Medicine/ISAMB Environmental Health Center, 1000-001 Lisbon, Portugal
Adilson Marques: School of Medicine/ISAMB Environmental Health Center, 1000-001 Lisbon, Portugal
Nuno Loureiro: School of Medicine/ISAMB Environmental Health Center, 1000-001 Lisbon, Portugal
Miguel Peralta: School of Medicine/ISAMB Environmental Health Center, 1000-001 Lisbon, Portugal
Ramón Mendoza: Department of Social, Developmental and Educational Psychology, Universidad de Huelva, 21071 Huelva, Spain
Margarida Gaspar de Matos: School of Medicine/ISAMB Environmental Health Center, 1000-001 Lisbon, Portugal

IJERPH, 2020, vol. 17, issue 20, 1-11

Abstract: Sport participation has been advocated as a strategy to improve adolescents’ mental health. However, how these variables evolve during the adolescent years is uncertain. The objective of the present work was to examine the longitudinal associations of sports participation and depressive symptoms in adolescents. Participants were 525 Spanish adolescents (50.3% boys), aged between 12 and 15 years old (M = 13.45, SD = 0.69). They were enrolled in 18 secondary schools located in Andalusia (Spain) in the first two academic years of Compulsory Secondary Education. Data were collected in three waves, separated by one year, by administering self-report measures of depressive symptoms and sport participation. Repeated measures analyses of variance were conducted to examine the change in depressive symptoms and sport participation, and a latent growth curve model was tested to examine the change in depressive symptoms controlling initial sport participation and gender. At each wave, more frequent sport participation was related to lower depressive symptoms. Two years after the first assessment, adolescents became more depressed but not more active. Less active adolescents had more depressive symptoms in each assessment time. At all moments of assessment, girls were less active and reported more depressive symptoms. Moreover, girls had a higher increase in depressive symptoms than boys. Promotion of physical activity (PA) as a mental health strategy needs to consider gender differences as boys and girls have different patterns of presentation of depressive symptoms throughout adolescence.

Keywords: adolescents; depression; health promotion; physical activity; mental health; wellness (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
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