A-46 High School Soccer and Risk for Mental Health Outcomes in Adulthood: A National Longitudinal Study

Abstract

Abstract Purpose: There is concern that participation in contact sports during youth might confer risk for later in life mental health problems. We examined whether playing high school soccer was associated with higher rates of depression, anxiety, and suicidality in early to middle adulthood. Methods: The National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (“Add Health”) database was analyzed at Wave I (n = 6503; median age = 15), Wave III (median age = 22), Wave IV (median age = 29), and Wave V (n = 4196; median age = 38). We compared those who played soccer to those who did not play contact sports on mental health outcomes. Results: There were 221 participants who played high school soccer (102 men and 119 women) compared to 2388 who denied participation in contact sports (784 men and 1604 women). During their late 30s, approximately 17.4% of men and 31.0% of women reported a lifetime history of depression, and 15.6% of men and 28.8% of women reported a lifetime history of anxiety. Suicidal ideation, in the past year, was reported by 7.1% of men and 6.8% of women. When comparing those who played soccer to those who did not, there were no statistically significant differences in the proportions who had a lifetime diagnosis of depression or anxiety, or suicidal ideation in the past year, during Waves III, IV, or V of data collection (p-values>0.05). Conclusions: Adults who played high school soccer did not have greater mental health problems at three different time points spanning more than 20 years after high school.