More self-esteem, more confidence and more friends: how sport promotes the mental health of adolescents

Adolescence is a stage of great changes in any person's life: hormonal, physical and, of course, psychological changes. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), between 10% and 20% of European adolescents suffer from some mental or behavioral health problem. Around two million young people suffer from a mental disorder in Europe, to varying degrees of severity, according to the Youth Institute. And Spain is the European country with the highest prevalence of these pathologies in children and adolescents, according to Unicef. How can this data be improved? For experts, a solution may be to play sports. Although in Spain less and less exercise is done.

According to the guide to

published in

2009 (the only one to date) by the Ministry of Health, today's boys and girls spend approximately 600 kilocalories less per day than those of 50 years ago. And the reasons are, as indicated, multifactorial, such as, for example, carrying out more sedentary activities such as watching television, surfing the Internet or engaging in video games, which have replaced outdoor play. Other reasons cited are that there is less physical exercise in extracurricular activities or the increase in motorized transportation (not walking to school, for example).

Exercising has multiple advantages on a physical level, but during adolescence it is also essential on a psychological level. "We know that exercise is important for the body, that's why we try to make time to do it because it is well understood that it is good for health, but the general population does not know that it is equally, or even more significant, for the mind," explains child and adolescent psychologist Lorena González. "All professionals try to get our patients to practice some exercise at some point, because there are numerous studies - among them,

prepared by the University of Murcia in

2022, or

conducted by researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital in 2023—showing that exercise practice has a positive impact on managing stress, anxiety, and , especially, depression.” “In addition, sport makes us feel better about ourselves, increasing self-esteem, which is important to strengthen in a stage as difficult and fragile as adolescence,” González continues. If exercise makes them acquire physical strength, that will generate special confidence in them, according to the professional. “At the same time, team sports help and encourage healthy social relationships,” she adds.

According to the psychologist, a government program has been carried out for years in Iceland to predict whether young people who practice sports have fewer addictions, and this seems to be the case. Adolescents who do physical activity with friends are less likely to develop an addiction and use drugs because the exercise itself generates that motivation and hook that they do not need to acquire in other ways. The expert refers to the model

whose first results were published in 2023 and which seeks to reduce the conditions conducive to drug use, as well as enhance the protective factors of adolescents against them.

Mar Planas, a renowned personal trainer – she has 335,000 followers on Instagram – believes that exercise should always be present in our lives, but in adolescence it becomes more important: “It has been proven that the person who practices it improves self-confidence. and self-esteem, in addition to being a way to establish healthy habits that extend to other areas of your life. It is easier for people who play sports to eat better, drink less alcohol or go to bed earlier,” she explains.

“People who train strength,” adds Planas, “improve the gray matter of the brain, optimizing cognitive function, memory, greater ability to concentrate, and helping to prevent degenerative diseases.” For the coach, the most important thing is that the child has the practice of sport as a habit: "I suggest that they start with strength training, but that it agrees with the child's taste, there are minors who prefer sport alone and others in equipment". For her, the best way for children to play sports is for them to see their parents doing it because they copy everything they do.

“We must differentiate sport or physical activity because the second refers to leading an active life, moving, walking, for example, going up and down stairs, jumping, walking the dog, choosing activities that require movement, that is, any activity that activate the muscles, move the body and generate energy,” explains Abigail Huertas Patón, psychiatrist and child and adolescent psychiatrist at the Gregorio Marañón Hospital, in Madrid. “Exercise produces fun, learning and respect for rules, it promotes socialization, helps tolerate frustration, and strengthens the body. It improves sleep-wake rhythms and growth,” explains the doctor.

Huertas also adds that sustained physical activity produces structural changes at the brain level, releasing different neurotransmitters that mediate attentional and cognitive processes, such as dopamine, serotonin, norepinephrine, in different areas of the brain: “In addition to these well-known neurotransmitters , exercise stimulates the secretion of growth factors in the brain that modulate better brain and body development. Circulation is activated, which oxygenates our organs better and our entire body functions better.”

“To help them love sport, it is important that, from a young age, they are enrolled in activities and they try them until they know which one they feel most comfortable in and which one they like the most,” explains Julio Domínguez, athlete and creator of BiciHack, a

bicycle

search engine .

Domínguez points out that it is necessary that physical activity be maintained over time, that they love it and that they are good at it: “If any of these conditions fail, there is little chance that they will continue to be involved.” The expert emphasizes that it is important not to force the minor, but to encourage him and make it easier for him to attend the activities at appropriate times.