Mental Health Promotion: The Active and Passive Role of Youth Sport
Open Access
- Author:
- Panza, Michael
- Graduate Program:
- Kinesiology
- Degree:
- Master of Science
- Document Type:
- Master Thesis
- Date of Defense:
- June 16, 2020
- Committee Members:
- Michael Blair Evans, Thesis Advisor/Co-Advisor
Jen Putnam Agans, Committee Member
Melissa Jean Bopp, Committee Member
Jonathan Bates Dingwell, Program Head/Chair - Keywords:
- youth sport
mental health
meta-analysis
intervention
systematic review - Abstract:
- Considering that the incidence of mental health problems of adolescents is an ongoing concern that can divert youth from optimal developmental pathways, we need to identify community settings that can be leveraged to support mental health. Organized youth sport can be a potential avenue to promote mental health. Sport has potential as a setting to deliver ‘active’ strategies such as interventions, or for more ‘passive’ benefits – focusing on how sport may automatically confer positive mental health outcomes for youth. I conducted this thesis to explore each of these roles within youth sport, spanning two standalone manuscripts. Relative to the passive role of sport, the first manuscript includes a systematic review and meta-analysis to explore the relationship between adolescent organized sport participation and self-reported symptoms of anxiety and depression. From 9,955 records screened, 29 unique articles were selected that included 61 effect sizes and 122,056 participants. Effects were clustered into four categories based on how researchers operationalized sport involvement: absence or presence of involvement, frequency of involvement, volume of involvement, and duration of participation. Meta-analytic findings revealed that symptoms of anxiety and depression were significantly lower among sport-involved adolescents compared to those not involved in sport, although this effect size was small in magnitude. To examine the potential active role of sport, a mixed-methods study was conducted to evaluate the feasibility and acceptability of a peer-based mental health literacy intervention. The mental health literacy intervention (i.e., Team Talk) was presented to eleven adolescent sport teams, with a total of 174 participants. Athlete participants completed pre- and post-intervention surveys that included measures of workshop acceptability, social identity, and help-seeking behaviors – semi-structured interviews were also conducted with a subset of athletes, parents, and coaches. Participants rated the acceptability at a relatively high level, although acceptability varied from one session to another and was predicted by contextual factors related to implementation (e.g., session duration). Athletes’ social identities related to their sport team also strengthened when comparing pre- and post-intervention survey responses. Athlete participants, coaches, and parents also provided qualitative responses that inform potential adaptations to mental health programs and reflected on the salience of peer relationships in this context. In sum, this thesis demonstrates the potential active and passive role of organized sport in adolescent mental health promotion.