Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2023 Feb 28:10:1054482.
doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2022.1054482. eCollection 2022.

Cross-sectional associations between adolescents' physical literacy, sport and exercise participation, and wellbeing

Paulina S Melby  1   2   3 , Peter Elsborg  1   2   4 , Peter Bentsen  4   5 , Glen Nielsen  1
Affiliations

Cross-sectional associations between adolescents' physical literacy, sport and exercise participation, and wellbeing

Paulina S Melby et al. Front Public Health. .

Abstract

Background: Adolescence is a significant period in one's development of positive emotional and social wellbeing. Physical literacy (PL) is considered a determinant of physical health and wellbeing and is thought to be the foundation for an individual's engagement in physical activities. Yet, limited evidence exists on PL's association with adolescents' health and physical activity behavior. This study aims to (1) explore the associations between Danish adolescents' PL and their emotional and social wellbeing, (2) examine whether these associations are mediated by sport and exercise participation (SEP), and (3) consider if the associations differ across sex.

Methods: Cross-sectional data from a national population survey were collected in 2020. The sample consisted of 1,518 Danish adolescents aged 13-15 years. PL was assessed with the validated MyPL questionnaire. The weekly time engaged in sports and exercise was self-reported. Self-esteem, life satisfaction, body satisfaction, and loneliness were measured with items from the standardized HBSC questionnaire, and a wellbeing composite score was calculated from these four measures. We constructed structural equation models with PL and sports and exercise participation as independent variables and the five aspects of wellbeing as dependent variables.

Results: Positive associations were observed between PL and SEP (β = 0.33, p < 0.001) and between PL and the five aspects of wellbeing with β-values between 0.19 and 0.30 (p < 0.001). These associations were greater among girls. The association between PL and four of the five wellbeing outcomes were partly mediated by SEP with indirect effects (β) between 0.03 and 0.05.

Conclusions: Results from this study support the hypotheses that PL is important for children and adolescents' wellbeing and physical activity behavior.

Keywords: SEM; children; exercise participation; mental health; physical literacy; quality of life; sport participation; youth.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Hypothesized associations between study variables. This figure illustrates the theorized structural equation model, with aspects of emotional and social wellbeing serving as the outcomes.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Path coefficients of the significant mediation analysis. This figure shows path coefficients of the adjusted structural equation models with aspects of wellbeing as the outcomes. All the shown parameters (β) are standardized and statistically significant. Covariation between all exogenous variables was allowed. **indicates a p-value under 0.01; *indicates a p-value under 0.05; ns, non-significant association.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Patalay P, Gage SH. Changes in millennial adolescent mental health and health-related behaviours over 10 years: a population cohort comparison study. Int J Epidemiol. (2019) 48:1650–64. 10.1093/ije/dyz006 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Patton GC, Sawyer SM, Santelli JS, Ross DA, Afifi R, Allen NB, et al. . Our future: a lancet commission on adolescent health and wellbeing. Lancet. (2016) 387:2423–78. 10.1016/S0140-6736(16)00579-1 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Bernntsson L, Ringsberg K, Eriksson B, Köhler L. Health, economy and social capital in Nordic children aged 13-17 years and their families: changes between 1984, 1996 and 2011. Int J Healthc. (2015) 2:1–11. 10.5430/ijh.v2n1p51 - DOI
    1. Currie C, Zanotti C, Morgan A, Currie D, de Looze M, Roberts C. Social Determinants of Health Well-being Among Young People: Health Behaviour in School-Aged Children (HBSC) Study: International Report from the 2009/2010 Survey. World Health Organization. Regional Office for Europe (2012). Available online at: http://apps.who.int/iris/handle/10665/326406 (accessed August 1, 2022).
    1. Friedli L. World Health Organization Regional Office for Europe. Mental Health, Resilience and Inequalities / by Lynne Friedli. (2009). Available online at: https://policycommons.net/artifacts/562366/mental-health-resilience-and-... (accessed August 8, 2022).

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources