Earlier this year Power of Sport issued The True Sport Report and Central sport has identified and summarized 5 key themes.
The forth key theme is Sport Puts Children and Youth on a Positive Life Course.
- Making sport accessible and inclusive for all children and youth should be a Canadian priority.
- While most infants are hitting their activity targets, by the time they are in preschool, only 62% of children meet the recommended amount of physical activity per day.
- Teens who participate in team sports specifically are less likely to engage in high-risk health behaviours like substance abuse and risky sexual activities.
- Youth involved with community sport have described how their involvement promoted feelings of connectedness and community.
- Children and teens who participate in sport and physical activities have higher rates of self-esteem, self-concept, and self-worth.
- For shy children, sport participation provides a uniquely protective role, such that shy children participating in sport show increased social skills and those who participate in sport over time show lower rates of anxiety relative to shy non-participants.
- The positive effects of sport participation increased with the number of sports in which youth participate; this supports the idea of making many different sport opportunities available to children and youth rather than encouraging early specialization.
You can find the full 2022 True Sport Report here.
