Mental Health and Sport

People who exercise regularly tend to do so because it gives them an enormous sense of well-being. They feel more energetic throughout the day, sleep better at night, have sharper memories, and feel more relaxed and positive about themselves and their lives. And it’s also a powerful medicine for many common mental health challenges, supported by plenty of evidence. Taking part in physical activity can have a substantial positive impact on mental wellbeing by improving mood, decreasing the chance of depression and anxiety, ADHD, and boosts your overall mood. You don’t need to be the fittest person around to reap the benefits, research indicates that modest amounts of exercise can make a noticeable difference. No matter your age or fitness level, you can learn to use exercise as a powerful tool to feel better.


The mental health improvements from engaging in sports aren't exclusive to when sport is carried out by oneself, it can come in group contexts too. There are even indications that team sport athletes have more of a benefit from taking out sport as individual sport athletes are more likely to report anxiety and depression than team sport athletes. This evidence is also supported in the longer term. A study involved surveying 850 students from 10 Canadian schools about their participation in school sports, such as basketball and football. Three years after graduation, researchers followed up with the participants, asking them questions about how often they experienced depressive symptoms and the amount of stress in their lives. Additionally, they asked them to rate their mental health on a scale of 1 (poor) to 5 (excellent).

The researchers found that teens who were involved in school sports had better scores on three mental health assessment indicators, when compared with those who did not play social sports at all. Therefore, the study found that playing school sports during adolescent years is significantly linked to lower depression symptoms, lower perceived stress, and better mental health in young adulthood when self-rated. The researchers noted a perceived protection of poor mental health 4 years later that engaging in sport offers from the ages of 12-17 has. The researchers put this down to “team sports offer a heightened emphasis on group goals, social support, and sense of connection that provide more opportunity for learning adaptive coping strategies that can be essential for long-term mental health.”

Keeping up to date with current research helps OnTarget deliver the best programme to truly help local school children. By encouraging engagement in social sport can clearly have substantial impacts to the lives of children, not just now, but for years to come.