ArticleChild and adolescent psychiatry and mental health2020
The importance of social factors in the association between physical activity and depression in children.
Article in Child and adolescent psychiatry and mental health, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 20 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
20 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- The impact of sports participation on psychological health and social outcomes in children and adolescents: a systematic review and update to the "Mental Health through Sport" conceptual model.Systematic reviews · 2026Pooled it
- Physical activity and mental health: a systematic review and best-evidence synthesis of mediation and moderation studies.The international journal of behavioral nutrition and physical activity · 2024Pooled it
- Mechanisms Linking Physical Activity with Psychiatric Symptoms Across the Lifespan: A Systematic Review.Sports medicine (Auckland, N.Z.) · 2023Pooled it
- Hippocampal volume and persistent distressing psychotic-like experiences across early adolescence: the moderating role of physical activity.Schizophrenia research · 2026Article
- Recreational Activities and Youth Outcomes: An Explainable Machine Learning Study.JAACAP open · 2026Article
- Physical-Digital and social-nonsocial extracurricular engagement: differential effects on brain development and psychological outcomes in children.Translational psychiatry · 2026Article
- What we have learned about adolescent mental health and where we are going after a decade with the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study.Developmental cognitive neuroscience · 2026Review
- Identifying patterns and predictors of social health in adolescence using data from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study.Developmental psychology · 2026Article
- Associations Between Genetic Risk, Physical Activities, and Distressing Psychotic-like Experiences.Schizophrenia bulletin · 2026Article
- Investigating hierarchical critical periods in human neurodevelopment.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2026Review
- General Self-Efficacy as a Mediator of Physical Activity's Impact on Well-Being Among Norwegian Adolescents: A Gender and Age Perspective.Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Neural correlates differ between crystallized and fluid intelligence in adolescents.Translational psychiatry · 2025Article
- Mental health in children with and without ADHD: the role of physical activity and parental nativity.Child and adolescent psychiatry and mental health · 2025Article
- Effects of physical activity on internalizing problems in adolescents with autism spectrum disorder: the chain mediating effects of sport friendship quality and social-emotional competence.Frontiers in psychology · 2025Article
- Longitudinal study of peer victimization, social support, and mental health during early adolescence.Psychological medicine · 2024Article
- Exercise as Treatment for "Stress-Related" Mental Disorders.Current neuropharmacology · 2024Article
- The efficacy of physical exercise interventions on mental health, cognitive function, and ADHD symptoms in children and adolescents with ADHD: an umbrella review.EClinicalMedicine · 2023Article
- Associations Between Moderate to Vigorous Physical Activity, Sedentary Behavior, and Depressive Symptomatology in Adolescents: A Prospective Observational Cohort Study.Journal of physical activity & health · 2023Observational
- Effect of motor skills development on psychological and social traits of students of mazandaran province during the covid-19 pandemics.Sport sciences for health · 2023Article
- The Developing Brain: Considering the Multifactorial Effects of Obesity, Physical Activity & Mental Wellbeing in Childhood and Adolescence.Children (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundPhysical activity is associated with reduced depression in youth and adults. However, our understanding of how different aspects of youth activities-specifically, the degree to which they are social, team-oriented, and physical-relate to mental health in children is less clear.
methodsHere we use a data-driven approach to characterize the degree to which physical and non-physical youth activities are social and team-oriented. We then examine the relationship between depressive symptoms and participation in different clusters of youth activities using mixed effect models and causal mediation analyses in 11,875 children from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study. We test our hypotheses in an original sample (
resultsWe show and replicate that social-physical activities are associated with lower depressive symptoms. Next, we demonstrate that social connections, measured by number of close friends, partially mediate the association between social-physical activities and lower depressive symptoms.
conclusionsOur results provide a rubric for using data-driven techniques to investigate different aspects of youth activities and highlight the social dynamics of physical activities as a possible protective factor against depression in childhood.
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