How play, exercise can help your child cope better with stress, bullying

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In an era of increased screen time and sedentary behaviours, the importance of physical activity during play in childhood cannot be overstated. Beyond the well-documented health benefits, recent research has shown that activity in sports has many psychological benefits and teaches children important life skills too.

Researchers think that, even more than the physical activity during play, children can also benefit from the social side of being in a team and from the involvement of other children and adults. They are right in that it boosts resilience.

When they’re playing sports, sometimes they will win, while at other times they will lose. Being a good loser takes maturity and practice. Losing teaches children to overcome disappointment, cope with unpleasant experiences, and is an important part of becoming resilient.

According to findings by researchers from the University of Basel, plenty of exercise from playing sports is good for building resilience in children. It also ensures they can cope better with daily stress, just like adults.

A research team led by Dr. Manuel Hanke and Dr. Sebastian Ludyga from the Department of Sport, Exercise, and Health recently examined the effect of physical activity on children’s stress levels. Their findings appear in the Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport.

For their study, they had 110 children between the ages of 10 and 13 wear a sensor tracking their daily movement over the course of a week. They then brought the participants into the lab on two separate occasions to complete a stressful task and a non-stressful control task.

The researchers tested the children’s physical stress reaction via the concentration of the stress hormone cortisol in their saliva.

The results showed that the participants who got more than an hour of exercise per day, as the World Health Organisation (WHO) recommends, did in fact produce less cortisol in the stress task than the children who were less active.

Regularly active children seem to have a reduced physiological stress reaction in general. Even in the control task, which involved an unfamiliar situation, there was a difference in cortisol levels between more and less active children, though overall cortisol levels were lower than in the stress task.

Dr Ludyga suggested that one possible explanation for this finding could be that cortisol levels also increase during exercise.

She added, “When children regularly run, swim, climb, etc., the brain learns to associate a rise in cortisol with something positive. The body’s reaction always has a cognitive component as well; this positive association helps to prevent the concentration of cortisol from rising to too high a level in exam situations as well.”

Dr Adenike Adebimpe, a clinical psychologist at the Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Ogbomoso, stated in reaction to the finding that growing up resilient is good for children in that they are less vulnerable wherever they find themselves.

She added, “The social skills they acquire during sporting activities as a team or while playing with other children outside their homes ensure they also become street smart, build an inner person, and be strong from the inside.

“It ensures they master skills to cope while outside; they don’t become strangers in their own land even as they relate to and play with other children.”

Dr Taiwo Alatise, a consultant psychiatrist at LAUTECH Teaching Hospital, Ogbomoso, emphasised the need for children’s resilience to be built, as this would ensure they can easily “bouncing back” from difficulties or challenges.

According to Dr Alatise, this is one thing that will help them cope throughout different phases of their lives. They learn resilience through experience. So, they will be able to manage not only to adapt but to blossom in spite of setbacks.

“When they interact through play among themselves or sporting activities, they learn to cope with bullying, for instance. They can recognise a bully from a far distance; they know what the person can do and how to cope with and handle such a person because of their consistent and continuous interaction with others.

“They will know how to stay away from toxic people, and because of continuous interactions over time, they will also be able to avoid things that will be of risk to their mental wellbeing later in life.”

More specifically, researchers in another study listed increased time spent in reading and organised sports as two ingredients required for enhancing reasoning skills among children. This contributes to their toughness.

Reasoning skills are crucial skills in learning, academic performance, and everyday problem-solving.

According to a recent study conducted at the University of Eastern Finland, others include improved overall diet quality and reduced consumption of red meat. It was published in the Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports.

The study, which examined the effects of a two-year diet and physical activity intervention on cognition among 397 Finnish elementary school children, said that children who spent more time in reading and organised sports showed better reasoning skills than their peers.

On the other hand, excessive time spent on a computer and unsupervised leisure-time physical activities were associated with poorer reasoning skills. Screen time, active school transportation, recess physical activity, and physical activity intensity were not associated with reasoning skills.

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