In the past decade or more, improving young people’s mental health has been identified as a priority for policy-makers in many countries, including Norway. Physical education, as a setting for physical activity, is increasingly viewed as having a potentially significant role to play in addressing mental health among the young. This paper reports the findings from a study of 148 Norwegian youngsters (68 girls and 80 boys) from the 10th grade (15–16 years old) in eight secondary schools in Norway in 2017. It explores Norwegian youngsters’ experiences of physical education in relation to aspects of their mental health – specifically, being judged and, by extension, ‘othered’. The findings suggest that physical education may undoubtedly serve to generate positive feelings associated with physical activity and games and, in doing so, bolster some youngsters’ self-esteem and self-identities. On the other hand, however, for those less competent in sporting terms, and whose bodily self-image is not particularly positive, the public nature of physical education and the nature of the activities that constitute the subject can give rise to unplanned and unintended harm to some youngsters’ mental health – especially in countries, such as Norway, where sport is a significant aspect of the group habitus and collective ‘we-group’ identity.

在过去的十年或更长时间里，改善年轻人的心理健康已被确定为包括挪威在内的许多国家决策者的优先事项。体育作为体育活动的一种环境，越来越被认为在解决年轻人的心理健康方面具有潜在的重要作用。本文报告了2017年在挪威的8所中学对148位10年级（15-16岁）的挪威年轻人（68名女孩和80名男孩）进行的研究的结果。该研究探讨了挪威年轻人在体育教育方面的经历他们心理健康的各个方面-具体来说，是要进行判断，并通过“其他”来进行。研究结果表明，体育教育无疑可以产生与体育活动和游戏相关的积极感觉，并且在这样做时，增强一些年轻人的自尊心和自我认同感。但是，另一方面，对于那些运动能力较弱，身体自我形象不是特别积极的人来说，体育的公共性和构成该主题的活动的性质可能会造成计划外和意料之外的伤害。对于一些年轻人的心理健康而言，尤其是在挪威等国家，在这些国家，体育运动是群体习惯和集体“我们群体”身份的重要方面。