Sports-team participation and risk behaviors among US high school students: behavior-specific and sex-heterogeneous associations in the national YRBS, 2011-2023.
- 1School of Physical Education and Sports Science, South China Normal University, Guangzhou, China.
Abstract
Sports-team participation is often regarded as a favorable adolescent context, but whether its associations are consistent across distinct risk behaviors and across sex remains unresolved. We conducted a repeated cross-sectional analysis of seven U. S. National Youth Risk Behavior Survey cycles (2011-2023; 110,409 records) using survey-weighted regression and marginal standardization. Participation in one or more sports teams was associated with higher adjusted prevalence of alcohol use (PD, +4.46 percentage points; 95% CI, +3.38 to +5.55) and physical fighting (+2.53; 95% CI, +1.62 to +3.43), but lower prevalence of cigarette smoking (-3.46; 95% CI, -4.10 to -2.82) and marijuana use (-1.49; 95% CI, -2.33 to -0.66); all Holm-adjusted p < 0.001. Sex heterogeneity was observed for all four outcomes (all interaction p < 0.001): positive associations with fighting and alcohol were more pronounced among males, whereas inverse associations with cigarette smoking and marijuana use were more evident among females. The overall behavioral pattern was retained in participation-level and prespecified sensitivity analyses, although alcohol showed evidence of survey-cycle heterogeneity. Sports-team participation therefore corresponded to a behavior-specific and sex-heterogeneous, rather than uniformly lower- or higher-risk, behavioral profile. These findings may inform prevention science and intervention development in U. S. high school settings by supporting behavior-specific, context-sensitive strategies that address the social conditions surrounding sports participation rather than treating participation itself as uniformly protective or harmful.
Related
- Long-term associations between participation in sport-health gateways, functional capacity and health behaviors: the Limousin Sport Santé cohort study, France
- Cumulative risk and graded associations with high-risk sexual behaviors among Chinese university students: a cross-sectional study.
- Associations of self-reported physical activity, sedentary behavior, and sleep duration with mental and behavioral health among civil aviation flight students: a cross-sectional study
- Understanding participation and quality of life of university students with probable DCD using structural equation modeling
- Gateway to belonging? A mixed-methods study exploring the experiences of widening participation students in a UK medical school.
BibTeX
@article{sun2026sportsteam,
title = {{Sports-team participation and risk behaviors among US high school students: behavior-specific and sex-heterogeneous associations in the national YRBS, 2011-2023.}},
author = {Fa-Liang Sun and Qing Liu},
journal = {Frontiers in public health},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.3389/fpubh.2026.1975621},
url = {https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42909013},
note = {CC BY},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Sports-team participation and risk behaviors among US high school students: behavior-specific and sex-heterogeneous associations in the national YRBS, 2011-2023.
AU - Fa-Liang Sun
AU - Qing Liu
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/07
JO - Frontiers in public health
DO - 10.3389/fpubh.2026.1975621
UR - https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42909013
AB - Sports-team participation is often regarded as a favorable adolescent context, but whether its associations are consistent across distinct risk behaviors and across sex remains unresolved. We conducted a repeated cross-sectional analysis of seven U. S. National Youth Risk Behavior Survey cycles (2011-2023; 110,409 records) using survey-weighted regression and marginal standardization. Participation in one or more sports teams was associated with higher adjusted prevalence of alcohol use (PD, +4.46 percentage points; 95% CI, +3.38 to +5.55) and physical fighting (+2.53; 95% CI, +1.62 to +3.43), but lower prevalence of cigarette smoking (-3.46; 95% CI, -4.10 to -2.82) and marijuana use (-1.49; 95% CI, -2.33 to -0.66); all Holm-adjusted p < 0.001. Sex heterogeneity was observed for all four outcomes (all interaction p < 0.001): positive associations with fighting and alcohol were more pronounced among males, whereas inverse associations with cigarette smoking and marijuana use were more evident among females. The overall behavioral pattern was retained in participation-level and prespecified sensitivity analyses, although alcohol showed evidence of survey-cycle heterogeneity. Sports-team participation therefore corresponded to a behavior-specific and sex-heterogeneous, rather than uniformly lower- or higher-risk, behavioral profile. These findings may inform prevention science and intervention development in U. S. high school settings by supporting behavior-specific, context-sensitive strategies that address the social conditions surrounding sports participation rather than treating participation itself as uniformly protective or harmful.
SN - 2296-2565
ER -