Association between school-based physical activity promotion and mental health: a population-based cross-sectional study of schoolchildren in Finland.
Growing evidence emphasizes the crucial role of schools in promoting both physical activity (PA) and mental health. This study examined the associations of school-based PA promotion measures with mental health among schoolchildren in Finland. The data were extracted from two sources: the Finnish Sch...
| Publicado en: | European Journal of Public Health Vol. 36; no. 2; pp. 1 - 7 |
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| Autores principales: | , , , , |
| Formato: | research tables/charts Journal Article |
| Publicado: |
Oxford University Press / USA
Apr2026
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| Acceso en línea: | Ver este registro en EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ccm&AN=193017694&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: ccm uiTerm: 193017694 longDbName: CINAHL Complete uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: dissinfo: jinfo: jid: 11011262 BHW jtl: European Journal of Public Health issn: 11011262 maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: Apr2026 vid: 36 iid: 2 pid: 622 pub: Oxford University Press / USA artinfo: ui: 193017694 193017694 193017694 10.1093/eurpub/ckag020 193017694 ppf: 1 ppct: 6 formats: fmt: – @attributes: type: T – @attributes: type: P tig: atl: Association between school-based physical activity promotion and mental health: a population-based cross-sectional study of schoolchildren in Finland. aug: au: Viskari, Tia Appelqvist-Schmidlechner, Kaija Ståhl, Timo Vaara, Jani P Fröjd, Sari affil: Unit of Health Sciences, Faculty of Social Sciences, Tampere University, Tampere, FinlandDepartment of Public Health and Welfare, Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare, Helsinki, Finland sug: subj: School Health Services Finland Physical Activity Health Promotion Mental Health Evaluation Sex Factors Child Health Human Finland Male Female Child Cross Sectional Studies Questionnaires Rosenberg Self Esteem Scale Scales Logistic Regression Descriptive Statistics Data Analysis Software Odds Ratio Confidence Intervals Self Concept Depression Symptoms Anxiety Symptoms Social Behavior Social Skills Child: 6-12 years Male Female ab: Growing evidence emphasizes the crucial role of schools in promoting both physical activity (PA) and mental health. This study examined the associations of school-based PA promotion measures with mental health among schoolchildren in Finland. The data were extracted from two sources: the Finnish School Health Promotion study providing individual-level data and the Finnish Benchmarking System for Health Promotion Capacity Building providing school-level data. The combined dataset comprised 87 372 schoolchildren from 1662 schools. The PA promotion efforts were measured in four categories. Mental health outcomes included depressive and anxiety symptoms, self-esteem, and prosocial behaviour. Multilevel binary logistic regression was used as a statistical method. In adjusted analyses, enabling the utilization of indoor sports facilities outside of physical education (PE) classes was associated with lower likelihood of low self-esteem (odds ratio [OR]: 0.93, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.87–0.99). Furthermore, extended PA breaks were associated with lower likelihood of low self-esteem among boys (OR: 0.91, 95% CI: 0.83–0.99), and enabling the utilization of indoor sports facilities outside of PE classes was associated with a lower likelihood of depressive symptoms among girls (OR: 0.93, 95% CI: 0.87–0.99). The simultaneous implementation of all four PA promotion measures was associated with better prosocial skills (OR: 1.06, 95% CI: 1.01–1.11). School-based PA promotion may enhance children's self-esteem and prosocial skills, and in girls reduce the risk of depressive symptoms, although the observed associations were particularly weak. To support the mental health of schoolchildren, PA should be promoted in schools through a variety of approaches. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: research tables/charts Journal Article ougenre: Article language: English refInfo: holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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