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"If our goal is to improve adolescent mental health for all youth, expanding access to sports makes sense,” says a study coauthor.
At a time when transgender athletes, especially trans girls and women, are under attack from federal and state governments, a new study shows how beneficial sports participation is for young trans people.
“Sports team participation is associated with better mental health among [transgender and gender-diverse] adolescents,” says a summary of the study, “Sports Team Participation, Bias-Based Bullying, and Mental Health Among Transgender and Gender Diverse Adolescents,” published in Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport.
Researchers from the University of Minnesota, Lurie Children’s Hospital in Chicago, and Northwestern University looked at data from the 2022 Minnesota Student Survey on trans and gender-diverse students in the eighth, ninth, and 11th grades.
“Overall, we found that [trans and gender-diverse] adolescents who participated on a sports team had a lower prevalence of elevated depressive and anxiety symptoms than similar adolescents who did not participate,” the authors write. Trans and gender-diverse students who were on a sports team and didn’t experience bullying based on their identity had the lowest rates of mental health concerns. The highest rates were among those who had multiple marginalized identities and were bullied. Trans teens are already at higher risk of mental health issues than their cisgender peers.
“Minnesota has protected participation on teams consistent with students’ gender identities since [the 2015-2016 school year], pursuant to our state’s human rights act,” says coauthor Sarah Kaja, an assistant professor in the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities. “However, even in our state with more protective policies, trans and gender-diverse teens need more support to play sports and be physically active — not less.”
Twenty-eight states have barred trans student athletes from competing under their gender identity by law or policy. And Donald Trump has issued an executive order threatening to withhold federal funding from schools that allow trans girls and women to play on women’s teams.
The researchers recommend that, rather than exclude these students, schools should encourage their participation and work to prevent bullying.
“As a lifelong female athlete who has played on girls’, women’s, and mixed-gender teams, I understand concerns of fairness and safety,” Kaja says. “However, the best available public health evidence from our lab and others suggests that across-the-board bans on trans girls and gender-diverse youth would be detrimental to adolescent health by further limiting participation and therefore exacerbating mental health concerns. If our goal is to improve adolescent mental health for all youth, expanding access to sports makes sense.”
