Sports Preferences in children and adolescents in psychiatric care – evaluation of a new Questionnaire (SPOQ)

Abstract

Background: As part of an exploratory and hypothesis-generating study, the Sports Preference Questionnaire (SPOQ) was developed to survey the athletic behavior of mentally ill children and adolescents, subjectively assessing physical fitness and the perceived psychological effects of physical activity. Methods: In a department of child and adolescent psychiatry, 313 patients (6 years - 18 years) were classified according to their primary psychiatric diagnosis. The patients or - in the parental version of the questionnaire - their parents reported their sports preferences on the SPOQ. As possibly influential factors, also the frequency of physical activity, the importance of a trainer, coping with everyday life through physical activity, and subjectively perceived physical fitness were assessed. Results: One in 3 patients stated that they were not physically active. Patients diagnosed with eating disorders reported, on average, a notably high frequency and degree of coping with daily life through physical activity. Patients with anxiety disorders and depression had the lowest self-perception of physical fitness. The presence of a trainer was generally considered very unimportant, but not in Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) patients. Conclusion: The SPOQ is sensitive to differential effects of core child and adolescent disorders as well as to main covariates influencing the complex association between physical activity and emotional and behavioral disorders in children and adolescents. Based on this pilot study, the need for an efficacy study to measure the effects of sports therapy was discussed.