The Story Vol 22

SNAPSHOT: Youth Work & Sport
In May this year, the Youth
Sport Trust released a new
report looking at the latest
research on children and
young people’s activity
levels. Here are a few
highlights…
The impact of exercise on school performance.
Sport has long been associated with improved
wellbeing, but research is also demonstrating the
long-term positive impact of physical activity on
academic attainment. 1 In particular, higher levels
of physical activity are positively associated with
attention in adolescents, which supports learning
in school. 2
Young people engage less in physical activities
since the pandemic.
Almost three quarters (73%) of school leaders
reported children returning to school with poor
levels of physical fitness following Covid-19
restrictions. 3 Overall, children’s activity levels
have fallen by 13% compared to pre-pandemic
levels. 4
Barriers to engaging in physical activity.
Unfortunately, existing inequalities have widened
since the start of the pandemic. Young people
from the least affluent families remain the least
active and are falling further behind, and children
from Black and South Asian communities are
less active than the overall average. 5 In 2021,
37% of girls said that their periods stopped them
being active, an increase from 27% in 2018/19. 6
By their teenage years, 78% of girls understand
the importance of an active lifestyle but only 28%
really enjoy taking part in physical activity. 7
What might this mean for youth work?
For lots of young people PE is a main source
of exercise, and yet state secondary schools in
England taught 13% fewer hours of PE in 2021
than in 2011 and not all young people enjoy
these lessons. 8 Community and faith-based youth
work can offer exercise and sports activities in
a way that reflects their alternative value base.
For example, Women in Sport suggest eight
principles for success when inviting teenage
girls to participate in sport, that may help build
exercise-positive cultures beyond PE. These
include: no judgement, giving voice and choice,
clear emotional reward, invoke excitement and
expand image of what ‘sporty’ looks like.
1. Booth J, Leary S, Joinson C, Ness A, Tomporowski P, Boyle J & Reilly J (2014). Associations between objectively measured
physical activity and academic attainment in adolescents from a UK cohort. British Journal of Sports Medicine, 48, 265–270.
2. Booth, J. N., et al (2013) Associations between executive attention and objectively measured physical activity in
adolescence: Findings from ALSPAC, a UK cohort, Mental Health and Physical Activity, 6 (3), pp.212–219. 3. Youth Sport Trust.
2020. Returning to school after COVID-19. 4. Salway et al. IntJ Behav Nutr Phys Act. 2022. Accelerometer measured physical
activity and sedentary time among children and their parents in the UK before and after COVID 19 lockdowns: a natural
experiment. 5. Sport England. 2021. Active Lives Children and Young People Survey – Academic year 2020–21. 6. Youth
Sport Trust. Girls Active research 2021. 7. Women in Sport/Sport England. 2019. Reframing Sport for Teenage Girls: Building
Strong Foundations for Their Futures. 8. Statistics: school workforce – GOV. UK. 2021.
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