ArticleSports health
Age of First Exposure to American Football and Behavioral, Cognitive, Psychological, and Physical Outcomes in High School and Collegiate Football Players.
Article in Sports health. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 32 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
32 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 48 citations in OpenAlex.
- High-Intensity Interval Training upon Cognitive and Psychological Outcomes in Youth: A Systematic Review.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2021Pooled it
- Younger Age of First Exposure to American Football Is Associated with Worse Informant-Reported Clinical Outcomes in Older Age Brain Donors.Journal of neurotrauma · 2026Article
- Demographic and Football-Related Characteristics Associated with Objective Cognitive Performance in Former NFL Players with a Normative Sample Comparison: An NFL-LONG Study.Sports medicine (Auckland, N.Z.) · 2026Article
- Cognitive and Neuropsychiatric Function in Former American Football Players.JAMA network open · 2026Article
- Psychosocial correlates of children's football participation: a psychological network analysis of parental support, stereotypes, and dualistic passions.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Article
- Long-term neurobehavioral and neuroimaging outcomes in athletes with prior concussion(s) and head impact exposure.The Clinical neuropsychologist · 2025Review
- The Association Between Age of First Exposure to American Football at a Young Age and Later-Life Health Issues in Healthy, Community-Dwelling Adults.Sports medicine (Auckland, N.Z.) · 2025Article
- Rates of Reporting and Analyzing Race and Ethnicity in Athlete-Specific Sports Medicine Research: A Systematic Review.Orthopaedic journal of sports medicine · 2024Review
- Comparison of Various Metrics of Repetitive Head Impact Exposure And Their Associations With Neurocognition in Collegiate-Aged Athletes.Archives of clinical neuropsychology : the official journal of the National Academy of Neuropsychologists · 2023Article
- Investigating the association between subjective and objective performance-based cognitive function among former collegiate football players.The Clinical neuropsychologist · 2023Article
- Association Between Head Impact Exposure, Psychological Needs, and Indicators of Mental Health Among U.S. High School Tackle Football Players.The Journal of adolescent health : official publication of the Society for Adolescent Medicine · 2023Article
- Age of first exposure to soccer heading: Associations with cognitive, clinical, and imaging outcomes in the Einstein Soccer Study.Frontiers in neurology · 2023Article
- Decreased myelin proteins in brain donors exposed to football-related repetitive head impacts.Brain communications · 2023Article
- Differing associations between measures of somatic symptom reporting, personality, and mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI).The Clinical neuropsychologist · 2022Article
- Investigating the overlapping associations of prior concussion, default mode connectivity, and executive function-based symptoms.Brain imaging and behavior · 2022Article
- Head Impact Exposure, Gray Matter Volume, and Moderating Effects of Estimated Intelligence Quotient and Educational Attainment in Former Athletes at Midlife.Journal of neurotrauma · 2022Article
- Disparate Associations of Years of Football Participation and a Metric of Head Impact Exposure with Neurobehavioral Outcomes in Former Collegiate Football Players.Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society : JINS · 2022Article
- Exposure to Head Impacts and Cognitive and Behavioral Outcomes in Youth Tackle Football Players Across 4 Seasons.JAMA network open · 2021Article
- Preseason Cerebrovascular Function in Adolescent Athletes.Annals of biomedical engineering · 2021Article
- Association of Previous Concussion with Hippocampal Volume and Symptoms in Collegiate-Aged Athletes.Journal of neurotrauma · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundAlthough some studies have observed a relationship between age of first exposure (AFE) to American football and long-term outcomes, recent findings in collegiate athletes did not observe a relationship between AFE and more intermediate outcomes at early adulthood. This, however, requires independent replication. HYPOTHESIS: There will be no association between AFE to football and behavioral, cognitive, emotional/psychological, and physical functioning in high school and collegiate athletes. STUDY
designCross-sectional study. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Level 3.
methodsActive high school and collegiate football players (N = 1802) underwent a comprehensive preseason evaluation on several clinical outcome measures. Demographic and health variables that significantly differed across AFE groups were identified as potential covariates. General linear models (GLMs) with AFE as the independent variable were performed for each clinical outcome variable. Similar GLMs that included identified covariates, with AFE as the predictor, were subsequently performed for each clinical outcome variable.
resultsAfter controlling for covariates of age, concussion history, race, and a diagnosis of ADHD, earlier AFE (<12 vs ≥12 years) did not significantly predict poorer performance on any clinical outcome measures (all
conclusionIn a large cohort of active high school and collegiate football student-athletes, AFE before the age of 12 years was not associated with worse behavioral, cognitive, psychological, and physical (oculomotor functioning and postural stability) outcomes. CLINICAL RELEVANCE: The current findings suggest that timing of onset of football exposure does not result in poorer functioning in adolescence and young adults and may contribute to resilience through decreased levels of physically related psychological distress.
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