Bengtsson Dennis, Svensson Joar, Wiman Virginia, Stenling Andreas, Lundkvist Erik, Ivarsson Andreas
School of Health and Welfare, Halmstad University, Kristian IV:S Väg 3, 301 18, Halmstad, Sweden.
Department of Psychology, Umeå University, Sweden, 901 87, Umeå, Sweden.
Int J Behav Nutr Phys Act. 2025 Jul 1;22(1):89. doi: 10.1186/s12966-025-01792-x.
Participating in youth sports can benefit individuals' psychological (e.g., fewer depressive symptoms, improved self-esteem), social (e.g., improved social skills, learning to work with others as a team), and physical health-related outcomes (e.g., higher physical activity levels, lower body fat), aligning with global sustainable development goals. Nevertheless, little is known about the magnitude concerning the effects of youth sport participation on such health-related outcomes compared with nonparticipation over time from childhood to adulthood. In this paper, we systematically review the extant longitudinal research and estimate the effects of youth sport participation on several psychological, physical, and social outcomes compared with nonparticipation.
Electronic database searches were employed to identify English-language peer-reviewed studies published from the earliest date until October 4, 2024. By using a priori criteria for inclusion and exclusion, we included 46 out of 4588 identified individual studies in the systematic review and 38 of the eligible studies for calculation of Cohen's d effect size estimates.
Together, the follow-up measurements of the included studies varied from 1 to 54 years after baseline, and the sample sizes ranged from 76 to over 50,000 participants. The meta-analysis revealed that youth sport participation had positive and statistically significant low- to medium-sized effects on physical activity, health and wellbeing, and negative small- to medium-sized effects on unhealthy body composition and mental ill-being over time.
This study provides evidence that participating in youth sports can have health-promoting effects throughout childhood, adolescence, and adulthood. This advocates for collaborative efforts among national governments, sport governing bodies, communities, and sports clubs to create an accessible and inclusive youth sport environment where young people can thrive and reap the health benefits of sport participation.
参与青少年体育运动有益于个人的心理（例如，抑郁症状减少、自尊提升）、社交（例如，社交技能提高、学会团队协作）以及与身体健康相关的结果（例如，身体活动水平提高、体脂降低），这与全球可持续发展目标相一致。然而，与从童年到成年未参与体育运动相比，关于青少年参与体育运动对这些与健康相关结果的影响程度，我们所知甚少。在本文中，我们系统回顾了现有的纵向研究，并估计了与未参与体育运动相比，青少年参与体育运动对若干心理、身体和社交结果的影响。
采用电子数据库检索，以识别从最早日期到2024年10月4日发表的英文同行评审研究。通过使用预先设定的纳入和排除标准，我们在系统评价中纳入了4588项已识别的个体研究中的46项，以及38项符合条件的研究来计算科恩d效应量估计值。
总体而言，纳入研究的随访测量在基线后1至54年之间，样本量从76名到超过50000名参与者不等。荟萃分析显示，随着时间推移，青少年参与体育运动对身体活动、健康和幸福感有积极且具有统计学意义的中低等效应，对不健康的身体成分和心理健康有消极的中小等效应。
本研究提供了证据，表明参与青少年体育运动在整个童年、青少年和成年期都能产生促进健康的效果。这提倡各国政府、体育管理机构、社区和体育俱乐部共同努力，营造一个便于参与且包容的青少年体育环境，让年轻人能够茁壮成长并从参与体育运动中获得健康益处。
