Adverse Childhood Experiences and Youth Sports Participation: Variations Across Demographic Characteristics.

Authors

Melissa S Jones, Hayley Pierce, Lorres Wan Cheung Jensen, Mikaela J Dufur

Published in

Journal of youth and adolescence. Jul 07, 2026. Epub Jul 07, 2026.

Abstract

Despite growing research on adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and adolescent development, less is known about whether ACE exposure is associated with participation in organized sports and whether these associations vary across demographic groups. Using data from the 2020-2021 National Survey of Children's Health, this study examined associations between ACE exposure and organized sports participation among 33,705 U.S. adolescents ages 12-17 years (M_age = 14.7 ± 1.7 years; 49.7% female); 65.9% were non-Hispanic White, and 40.9% were at or above 400% of the federal poverty line. Logistic regression and predictive probability analyses showed that greater ACE exposure was generally associated with lower odds of sports participation, though associations varied by race/ethnicity. SES differences were modest and inconsistent, and gender differences were not significant. Findings contribute to developmental understandings of adolescence by showing that adversity may shape youth participation in organized sports, an important setting associated with positive adolescent development.

PMID:
42412269
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 07 Jul 2026.

Read full publication at:
Please sign in to see all details.

Stats

1-terrible, 9-excellent. How would you rate this publication? Sign in in to submit your rating.

Post a comment

You need to be signed in to post comments. You can sign in here.

Comments

There are no comments yet.