Asian American Female Youth: Differences In Sport Participation And Associations With Mental Health

Asian American (AA) youth are underrepresented in sport research and rarely disaggregated by sex and regions of origin (RoO). Sport participation rates among AA female youth, especially by different RoO, are unclear. Mental health research with AA female youth is more common and highlights needs for support. Playing sports associates with better mental health, so exploring sport and mental health in this group is warranted. PURPOSE: To explore sport participation by Asian RoO and examine associations between sport participation and mental health among AA female youth. METHODS: We used 2022 Minnesota Student Survey data. Female youth (n = 4,358, mage = 14.7 years, sdage = 1.3) chose from 13 Asian identities on a provided list (e.g., Chinese, Hmong, Pakistani, Other). We created 4 groups for Asian RoO: East Asian; South Asian; Southeast Asian; and Other Asian. Youth reported: playing any sports; anxiety and depression via the PHQ-4; cisgender vs diverse gender identity; and socioeconomic status. BMI was calculated and geographic areas were designated as urban, suburban, town, or rural. We calculated frequencies of sport participation by RoO and tested for differences with chi-square and post-hoc tests. We calculated frequencies of anxiety and depression for all youth. We tested associations between RoO and sport participation with logistic regressions, accounting for all variables. We tested associations between sport participation and mental health with logistic regressions, accounting for all variables. RESULTS: About 37% of AA female youth played sports. About 25% reported anxiety and 25% reported depression. Roughly 45% of East Asian female youth played sports, compared to 46% of South Asians, 27% of Southeast Asians, and 32% of Other Asian youth; these all differed significantly (p ≤ .001). East Asian and South Asian youth were more likely to play sports than Southeast Asian youth (ORs = 1.70 and 1.59, p ≤ .001) in an adjusted model. Playing sports was associated with lower odds of anxiety (OR = 0.76, p ≤ .001) and depression (OR = 0.76, p ≤ .001) in adjusted models. CONCLUSION: Sport participation rates vary among AA female youth by RoO, and participation is associated with better mental health. Researchers should include and disaggregate AA groups while working toward Healthy People 2030’s youth sport objective. National Institutes of Health's National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences, grant UL1TR002494