Exercise as it relates to Disease/The effects of team sports on the mental health of individuals who had adverse childhood experiences

This is a critique of the journal article "Association of team sports participation with long-term mental health outcomes among individuals exposed to adverse childhood experiences" by Easterlin, Chung and Leng (2019).

What is the background to this research?
The objective of the research study was to discover whether there is a positive association between team sports participation and the diagnosis of mental health among individuals who have faced adverse childhood experiences.

Five out of the top ten leading causes of death are linked to adverse childhood experiences, with one in six adults stating they have encountered four or more types of adverse childhood experiences. Adverse childhood experiences can include parental substance abuse or mental illness, witnessing or being apart of family violence and childhood physical, sexual and emotional abuse. Studies convey that adverse childhood experiences are linked not only to mental health problems but also to chronic and cardiovascular health problems and behavioural problems and substance abuse in adulthood.

An intervention that would help improve the mental health of individuals who encountered adverse childhood experiences would be participation in team sports. Research displays that there is a positive relationship between mental health and participating in team sports. Evidence shows that partaking in team sports boosts aspects such as self-confidence, motivation and feeling content in life. Team sports compared to individual sports enhance feelings of being connected with peers which increases the social and emotional well being of the individuals. Team sports decrease mental health aspects including stress, anxiety and depression.

Where is the research from?
The research was conducted from students who studied at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in the 1994-1995 school year. The students were apart of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health.

What kind of research was this?
This is a qualitative research study, as interviews and questionnaires were used to collect the data used in the study.

What did the research involve?
9668 individuals who were a part of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health were used in the study. These 9668 individuals did encounter adverse childhood experiences and did not partake in team sports during adolescence. These selection of participants included data waves one (1994-1995 school year), this year was used to investigate their participation in team sports and wave four (2008) was used to explore their mental health 13 to 14 years later. This research was performed from November 6, 2017, to January, 2019. The diagnosis of depression, anxiety and depressive symptoms were compared when exploring the 9668 individuals' adult mental health problems.

As a control group 4870 participants who did not encounter adverse childhood experiences to compare them. To determine the study sample the students were asked to answer a questionnaire.

Questionnaire:

If the students selected one or more sports they were recognised as participating in team sports and if the students selected no sports they were recognised as not participating in team sports.

What were the basic results?
Studies express that those who have suffered adverse childhood experiences have a higher chance of being diagnosed with mental health problems. The most common mental health problems diagnosed are depression, anxiety and depressive symptoms.

The results of the study showed that there was a positive correlation between team sports participation and improved mental health among individuals who have encountered adverse childhood experiences. The study revealed that there were similar results between both genders when comparing the relationship between participation in team sports and improved mental health. However, it was identified that males had a larger number of significant correlations between participation in team sports and improved mental health compared to females. When differentiating the genders, the results demonstrated that for the males, depression, anxiety and depressive symptoms were the mental health outcomes that had significantly lower chances of being diagnosed when participating in team sports during adolescence. Compared to the females, anxiety was the only mental health outcome that had significantly lower chances of being diagnosed when partaking in team sports during adolescence.

How did the researchers interpret the results?
The researchers interpretation of the results was that there was a positive relationship between team sports participation and improved mental health among individuals who have suffered adverse childhood experiences.

Certain considerations had to be recognised when interpreting the results. In many circumstances questionnaires being used to obtain answers or results can be influenced by self reporting bias, which can negatively influence the results. Individuals untruthfully answering questionnaires can be due to many reasons, some including respondents want to appear better than what they are, respondents want to give the answer they believe will help the researcher or they don’t want to answer questions about sensitive behaviour. In this study's case, the participants are asked “ Are you participating or do you plan to participate in the following sports”. Self-reporting bias could definitely be a contributing factor when the participants answered this question as they may be embarrassed about not participating in sports and choose to untruthfully answer this questionnaire to make themselves feel better. This would negatively impact the results as this questionnaire was used to compare the mental health of individuals who do participate in team sports to those who don’t participate in team sports. This is why self-reporting bias would have to be taken into consideration when interpreting results.

What are the implications of this research?
This research has justified that participation in team sports would be a useful intervention to improve mental health among individuals who have suffered adverse childhood experiences. However, for this intervention to be successful, the individuals partaking in team sports need to be engaged and fully involved in the team sport. Therefore, making it enjoyable and successful in improving the mental health and overall wellbeing of the individuals.

What conclusions can we take from this research?
There is a positive relationship between participation in team sports during adolescence and improved mental health among individuals who have suffered adverse childhood experiences. Stress, anxiety, depression and depressive symptoms are the most common mental health outcomes that are reduced from participation in team sports. Other sources express that team sport participation not only improves mental health but can boost aspects including self-confidence, motivation, fulfilling a content life and a feeling of connectiveness with peers. Studies also state that social and emotional wellbeing is increased from team sport participation.

Further information/resources
Further information regarding team sports participation and better mental health; click on the links below.
 * The psychological and social benefits of participation in sport for children and adolescents https://ijbnpa.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1479-5868-10-98
 * Relationships between adverse childhood experiences and adult mental well-being https://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12889-016-2906-3
 * Team sport participation beneficial for youth mental health https://www.labroots.com/trending/neuroscience/22911/team-sport-participation-beneficial-youth-mental-health