Youth sport offers physical and psychosocial components that may be beneficial for adolescents’ mental health, but the prospective directionality between sport participation and mental health has not been clearly established. The current study examined longitudinal associations between sport participation (individual and team sport) and mental health indices (depressive symptoms, anxiety symptoms, emotional symptoms, hyperactivity symptoms, conduct problems, peer problems, and prosocial behavior) across adolescence (ages 12–17) in a nationally representative Australian sample of 3956 participants at T1 (M_age = 12.41 years, SD = 0.49; 49% female), 3537 at T2 (M_age = 14.41 years, SD = 0.49; 49% female), and 3089 at T3 (M_age = 16.46 years, SD = 0.51; 49% female). Using random intercept cross-lagged panel modeling, several significant within-person effects were found. Notably, greater participation in team sport prospectively predicted fewer symptoms of depression and anxiety at subsequent timepoints. This study increases the understanding of how sport participation may relate to mental health among adolescents and provides critical evidence to inform policy.

青少年体育提供了可能有益于青少年心理健康的身体和心理社会成分，但尚未明确确定体育参与与心理健康之间的前瞻性方向。目前的研究检查了整个青春期（12-17 岁）的体育参与（个人和团队运动）与心理健康指数（抑郁症状、焦虑症状、情绪症状、多动症状、品行问题、同伴问题和亲社会行为）之间的纵向关联在 T1（M_年龄 = 12.41 岁，SD  = 0.49；49% 女性）的 3956 名参与者的澳大利亚全国代表性样本中，T2（M_年龄 = 14.41 岁，SD的 3537 人） = 0.49; 49% 女性），T3 时为 3089（M_年龄 = 16.46 岁，SD  = 0.51；49% 女性）。使用随机截距交叉滞后面板建模，发现了几个显着的人内效应。值得注意的是，更多地参与团队运动前瞻性地预测了随后时间点的抑郁和焦虑症状更少。这项研究增加了对体育参与如何与青少年心理健康相关的理解，并为制定政策提供了重要证据。