Young adolescents, especially boys, who participated in organized sports between ages 6 and 10 are less likely to defy their parents, teachers and other authority figures, a new study by researchers in Canada and Italy suggests.
“Oppositional-defiant disorder (ODD) is often under-diagnosed and can co-occur with other developmental disorders," said the study's lead author Matteo Privitera, a doctoral student at the University of Pavia (UofP), supervised by Linda Pagani, a professor at Université de Montréal's School of Psycho-Education.
"Symptoms of the disorder include persistent patterns of irritability, defiance and hostility toward authority figures," he said. "The disorder is over-represented by boys and often accompanies other neurodevelopmental disorders like ADHD and learning disabilities."
Importantly, "these behaviours can interfere with learning, relationships and long-term mental health," he added. "In our study, we wanted to look into the symptoms and try to identify accessible, community-based strategies that foster more adaptive behaviour in children.”
Privitera and his research team examined data from the Quebec Longitudinal Study of Child Development, a population-based cohort of children born in 1997 or 1998 whose data is curated by the Institut de la statistique du Québec.
The study focused on 1,492 boys and girls who participated in organized extracurricular sports between ages 6 and 10. At ages 10 and 12, the same children self-reported on symptoms of oppositional-defiant behaviour.
Those sports included any supervised by an adult (coach or instructor), structured according to established rules, practised in a group and involving a competitive element. Factors such as family income, maternal education and the child's behavioral profiles were considered and their influence was accounted for in the analyses.
