A latest study has shown link between team sports and lesser depression in pre-teen boys. While earlier studies had already shown the positive impact of exercise on depression and the link with hippocampal volume in adults, this is the first research to show that participation in team sports may have similar anti-depressant effects in pre-teen children.
Depression has long been associated with shrinkage of the hippocampus, a brain region that plays an important role in memory and response to stress. “Our findings are important because they help illuminate the relationships between involvements in sports, a volume of a particular brain region and depressive symptoms in kids as young as nine,” Lisa Gorham, lead author of the study was quoted.
These relationships were particularly strong for children participating in sports that involved structure, such as a school team, a non-school league or regular lessons, as compared to more informal engagement in sports, according to the study.
The findings also showed that there was a link between sports involvement and hippocampal volume in girls. However, unlike boys, there was no additional association with depression.
These findings indicate that different factors contribute to depression in girls, or that a stronger association to sports involvement might emerge at a later developmental stage among girls.