Physical Inactivity and Mental Health in Late Adolescence

Abstract

Late adolescence, between the ages of 15 and 19 years, represents a critical stage in life in which young people develop a sense of identity and independence as they transition to adulthood. This stage in life also involves pressures of maturation, academic performance expectations, and changing social roles. Compound these pressures with economic and psychosocial adversity in childhood and early adolescence, including abuse and neglect at home or racial/ethnic, gender, and sexual discrimination, and there emerges an increasing crisis in adolescents' mental health. Worldwide, the prevalence of mental health disorders (eg, depression, anxiety) increases markedly during late adolescence, reaching a peak during early adulthood (ages 20-24 years).Juxtaposed against these trajectories of declining mental health, late adolescence is also marked by decreases in health-enhancing physical activity behavior. The results of a prominent systematic review and pooled analysis revealed that between the ages of 10 and 19 years, this decrease equates to a 7% yearly reduction in physical activity. 1 An increasing body of longitudinal and experimental evidence points to the capacity of regular physical activity to contribute to positive mental health outcomes and buffer against ill health. 2 Previous work suggests that, for many individuals, acute bouts of physical activity can alleviate some of the deleterious emotional effects of experiencing stressful events. 3 In recognition of the benefits of regular physical activity, schools are universally considered to be key settings for providing regular physical activity through curricular (physical education), cocurricular (recess and lunch), and extracurricular (after-school programs and school sports) activities. Within general education systems worldwide, a United Nations report 4 identified that in 97% of countries surveyed, there were legal requirements for or it was a matter of general practice that adolescents receive regular physical education. Nevertheless, even when policy and state laws exist, the reality often involves diminished scheduling and uptake of physical education, especially in the upper secondary levels (ie, late adolescence), with time redirected to other academic subjects (ie, competing pressures of academic performance). 4 Of interest, recent evidence from the United States indicates that although 33.3% of states have minimum requirements for time spent in physical activity in elementary schools, this percentage decreases to 24.5% of states for middle or junior high schools and 9.8% of states for high schools. 5 In short, a nontrivial gap exists in the typical provision of and opportunities for physical activity in late adolescence. Because of the compelling evidence that now exists linking physical activity to improved cognitive function, 2 as well as the capacity for physical activity to reduce VIEWPOINT

Physical activity and mental health in children and adolescents: An updated review of reviews and an analysis of causality

“…The field of anxiety research in physical activity is in need of further development. Overall, we concur with a recent call for greater policy emphasis on physical activity for young people, based on the assertion that "the scientific evidence suggests that regular physical activity protects against deficits in mental health and supports cognitive function" (Beauchamp, Puterman, & Lubans, 2018 Comments: Part of a wideranging review of health outcomes of PA. Conclusions (below) seem optimistic given evidence summarised.…”

The association between adolescent football participation and early adulthood depression

“…higher self-rated mental health, and [35], who reached similar conclusions as us in a concurrent but methodologically distinct analysis of the same Add Health cohort. Our findings also accord with the broader literature on the benefits of adolescent physical activity [60]: regular physical activity during adolescence may decrease the risk of diabetes [61] and obesity [62], improve psychological and social health [26], and may even protect against later-life neurodegeneration [63]. Additionally, our finding that any adverse adolescent football participation might not manifest in early adulthood is similar to [64] finding that participating in tackle football before age 12 may not result in short-term neurocognitive deficits in college.…”

Screening for Depression in Adolescents in Gokarneshwor Municipality-4, Kathmandu

“…Worldwide the prevalence of mental disorders like depression increases markedly during late adolescence reaching peak during early adulthood which is age 20-24 years. 14 In Caribbean population, female adolescence was significantly associated with the reporting of depression, 13 but there was no association between gender and depression in this study. Studies done on American adolescents has shown that suicide related behavior increases with age, 15 which is similar to the findings of our study where the number of subjects in late adolescence having thoughts of self harm and suicide was six times more than that of early adolescent age group.…”