Building Adolescent Wellness through Fitness

Neurodivergent (ND) adolescents are less physically active than their typically developing (TD) peers. Challenges associated with ND include low self-confidence, high anxiety, impaired social skills, or unwillingness to try new things, which can impact engagement. Physical activity (PA) has been shown to reduce many of these difficulties, having a positive impact on TD peers. (Soga et al., 2015). Current programs available for adolescents that focus on PA are competitive and can increase anxiety. The prevalence of ND conditions continues to rise, so it is crucial to support the social-emotional wellness of ND adolescents. Use of PA can improve independence and strengthen transitions into adulthood (Lee et al., 2020). This scoping review aimed to gather information from existing literature on the effects of PA on ND adolescents and to investigate the types of PA interventions currently used. Ten articles were retrieved through the search process. Major themes included both participant and parent-reported outcomes. Amongst the studies, participants demonstrated or described improvements in stereotypic behavior, social-emotional behavior, executive functioning, attention, and motor abilities, and parents reported that their child demonstrated improvements in social skills, self-esteem, peer relationships, and communication (Smith et al., 2013; Benzing & Schmidt, 2019; Mebler et al., 2018; Bremer et al., 2016; Hoza et al., 2015; Sun et al., 2022; Bustamante et al., 2016).