A new study found that good physical fitness from childhood to adolescence is associated with better mental health in adolescence. The findings suggest that improving physical fitness from childhood may help prevent mental health problems. The corresponding study was published in Sports Medicine.  

Up to 20-30% of adolescents have impaired mental health, and a third of adolescents are estimated to be at risk of developing clinical depression globally. Although higher levels of physical fitness may reduce these issues, long-term follow-up studies are lacking that examine sex differences in the associations of physical fitness from childhood with cognition and mental health in adolescence. 

In the current study, researchers analyzed data from 241 adolescents who were 6-9 years old at the beginning of the study and 15-17 years at an 8-year follow-up. They calculated average change change scores for cardiorespiratory fitness, motor fitness and muscular fitness. They calculated global cognition from six individual cognitive tasks alongside perceived stress and depressive symptoms at the 8-year follow-up. 

Ultimately, the researchers found that better cardiorespiratory fitness and improvements in this metric from childhood to adolescence were linked to fewer stress and depressive symptoms in adolescence. They additionally found that better motor fitness from childhood to adolescence was linked to better cognitive function and less stress and depressive symptoms.  

“Our results should encourage policymakers as well as parents and guardians to see the significance of physical fitness more holistically, as poor physical fitness can increase mental health challenges and impair cognitive skills needed for learning,” said study author, Eero Haapala, Senior Lecturer of Sports and Exercise Medicine at the Faculty of Sport and Health Sciences, University of Jyväskylä.

“The whole of society should support physical fitness development in children and adolescents by increasing physical activity participation at school, during leisure time, and in hobbies,” concluded Haapala. 

Sources: Science Daily, Sports Medicine