Healthy and unhealthy correlates of sports involvement among italian adolescents? a 1 year longitudinal study

Background: Involvement in sporting activities has been shown to be associated with both healthy and unhealthy behaviors among US adolescents. Few investigations have investigated such associations among European adolescent populations. This study investigated the concurrent and longitudinal association of positive self-perception, problem drinking, aggressive behaviors, theft and vandalism, lying and disobedience, and sensation seeking on sports involvement among Italian adolescents.

Methods: The sample consisted of 302 Italian high school adolescents (48% female), ages 15-19 years (mean age = 17.4 (S.D. = 1.4)), living in the northwest of Italy. The participants were representative of the population of adolescents attending high school in this part of Italy. Regarding relevant structural indicators, this sample was comparable to the general Italian population. Linear regressions were used to explore the associations of among our variables of interest utilizing two waves of data. Age, gender, and sports involvement at baseline were used as covariates in the analysis.

Results: Results indicated greater positive self-perception (β = .385, p < 0.001), problem drinking (β = .06, p < 0.05), lying and disobedience (β = .289, p < 0.001) and lower sensation seeking (β = -.048, p < 0.05) to be concurrently associated to more weekly time spent on sporting activities. No longitudinal associations were identified

Conclusions: This study found some differences with US populations regarding particular health behavior associations with sporting activities. Such findings could greatly assist in the development of universal prevention efforts of adolescent problem behaviors.