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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Sports Act. Living
Sec. Women in Sport
Volume 7 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fspor.2025.1527622
This article is part of the Research Topic Bridging the Knowledge Gap: Enhancing Research on Women's Participation in Sports View all articles
The persisting influence of organized sports participation on mental health and wellness: A longitudinal repeated measures study of adolescent female athletes
Provisionally accepted
Rachel Meyers 1
Madison L Brna 1,2 Veronica Hogg-Cornejo 1 Catherine Donahue 1 Emily A Sweeney 1 Aubrey Armento 1
David R Howell 1*- 1 University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, Aurora, United States
- 2 University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States
We examined if female adolescent athletes demonstrated changes on mental health measures 6months after the end of a sport season compared to an immediate post-season assessment, and whether those who were actively playing sports 6-months after the end of the season reported different mental health ratings compared to athletes who were not. Participants underwent three assessments: a pre-season, immediate post-season, and final 6-month post-season assessment on measures of anxiety ratings, depressive symptoms, grit, peer relationships, fatigue, and body appreciation. Participants reported significantly higher anxiety ratings at 6 months post-season compared to immediately post-season (6.6±4.2 vs. 7.7±4.5; p=0.02), but no significant differences across time for other outcome measures. Those who were actively participating in sports at the 6-month follow-up reported significantly higher body appreciation ratings than those who were not (41.7±5.9 vs. 37.1±7.6; p=0.01). Our findings indicate active sports participation is associated with higher body appreciation among female athletes.
Keywords: female adolescent athletes, Mental Health, Sports participation, physical activity, Athlete
Received: 13 Nov 2024; Accepted: 03 Apr 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Meyers, Brna, Hogg-Cornejo, Donahue, Sweeney, Armento and Howell. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
David R Howell, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, Aurora, United States
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