Sport may protect against symptoms of mental disorders that are increasingly prevalent among adolescents. This systematic review explores the relationship between adolescent organized sport participation and self-reported symptoms of anxiety and depression. From 9,955 records screened, 29 unique articles were selected that included 61 effect sizes and 122,056 participants. Effects were clustered into four categories based on the operationalization of sport involvement: absence or presence of involvement, frequency of involvement, volume of involvement, and duration of participation. Results from the random-effects meta-analyses indicated that symptoms of anxiety and depression were significantly lower among sport-involved adolescents than in those not involved in sport, although this effect size was small in magnitude. Meta-regression was used to identify how age and sex explained heterogeneity in effects. Although these results do not signify a causal effect, they do support theorizing that sport participation during adolescence may be a protective environment against anxiety and depressive symptoms.

体育运动可以预防青少年中日益普遍的精神障碍症状。本系统综述探讨了青少年有组织的体育参与与自我报告的焦虑和抑郁症状之间的关系。从筛选的 9,955 条记录中，选出了 29 篇独特的文章，其中包括 61 个效应大小和 122,056 名参与者。根据体育参与的运作情况，影响被分为四类：参与或不参与、参与频率、参与量和参与持续时间。随机效应荟萃分析的结果表明，参与体育运动的青少年的焦虑和抑郁症状明显低于不参与体育运动的青少年，尽管这种效应幅度较小。元回归用于确定年龄和性别如何解释效应的异质性。尽管这些结果并不意味着因果关系，但它们确实支持这样的理论：青春期参与体育运动可能是对抗焦虑和抑郁症状的保护性环境。