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• Posted October 18, 2024

Fitness, Activity Boosts Kids' Mental Health, Too

Kids with good physical fitness are more likely to grow into teens with better mental health and brain function, a new study has found.

Children who performed better at shuttle sprints scored better on cognitive tests as teenagers, researchers found.

In addition, better cardio fitness in childhood added up to lower levels of stress and depression among teenagers, results show.

“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 lead researcher Eero Haapala, a senior lecturer of sports and exercise medicine at the University of Jyvaskyla in Finland.

In the study, researchers followed the physical fitness of 241 Finnish kids for eight years, tracking them from childhood through to adolescence. Tests of physical fitness were compared to scores of kids’ thinking ability and emotional health.

The findings, published recently in the journal Sports Medicine, showed that the more fit the kids were, the less stress and depression they reported as teenagers.

This could be because kids with better physical health have more self-esteem and better mental resilience, researchers said.

However, the researchers warned that kids who spend more times with screens might find the benefits of physical fitness blunted a bit.

“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,” Haapala concluded in a university news release.

More information

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more on the benefits of physical activity for kids.

SOURCE: University of Jyvaskyla, news release, Oct. 15, 2024