Earlier this year, Ophea, the Mental Health and Physical Activity Research Centre (MPARC) and Canadian Women & Sport (CWS) came together to host a free webinar series exploring the relationship between school-based physical activity opportunities and student mental health. Ophea was proud to provide a platform for MPARC’s research team to share tailored insights directly with two distinct audiences: classroom educators and community/system-level decision makers. This approach provided attendees with relevant, actionable strategies to leverage equitable sport and physical activity opportunities in support of student mental health.
Both sessions were informed by findings from Applying a Gender Equity Lens to Understand Sport and Physical Activity Opportunities and Barriers in Ontario Schools, a joint research project between MPARC and CWS led by MPARC director Dr. Catherine Sabiston that sought to understand sport and physical activity in the school context. MPARC’s research sheds light on the barriers to participation that girls and gender-diverse youth face when it comes to physical activity opportunities at school and emphasizes how school-based movement opportunities can serve as a vehicle to improve mental health outcomes for every student, with a particular focus on girls and gender-diverse youth.
Overall Research Findings
Through a comprehensive review of existing data and policies, the first phase of MPARC’s research revealed a limited focus on explicit physical activity promotion in Ontario schools alongside lagging participation rates for physical activity amongst girls and gender-diverse youth. During the second phase, MPARC solicited survey responses from students and school leaders across the province to establish a firmer understanding of the factors driving available programming and current student participation trends.
The second phase of this research highlighted persistent barriers such as a lack of inclusive programming, limited resources, and differing priorities for boys when compared to girls and gender-diverse youth. Despite the numerous, well-documented benefits associated with participation in sport and physical activity, ParticipACTION’s 2024 report card indicates that 61% of Canadian children and youth are not meeting physical activity recommendations as per the Canadian 24-Hour Movement Guidelines for Children and Youth (ParticipACTION, 2024). Further, research has consistently shown underrepresentation in sport and physical activity in Canada amongst girls, young women, and gender diverse youth, with boys being up to twice as likely as girls to meet movement guidelines (ParticipACTION, 2024).
Understanding more about girls’ attitudes and beliefs about sport and physical activity within schools may shed light on these discrepancies and uncover potential intervention points to expand participation. Youth tend to become less active in adolescence regardless of gender, but the decline in participation rates is disproportionate for girls and gender-diverse youth; around one-third of girls quit sports during their teens, often due to concerns about the quality of programming. Over time, this results in a 22% discrepancy in participation between girls aged 15-18 years and those aged 9-11 (Canadian Women & Sport, 2022).
The realities of limited resources and competing priorities within schools mean that school community members require actionable, evidence-informed ways to promote physical activity that are relevant to their role. Underlining the interconnectedness of physical and mental well-being offers pathways to improve mental health through movement, opening new possibilities to increase physical activity that connect with other key goals that many schools explicitly outline in their board or school improvement plans.
Recommendations for Educators
Additional research is needed to understand how known barriers for girls and gender-diverse youth (e.g., lack of quality experiences and feelings of belonging) manifest in schools and to uncover structural barriers that are unique to the Ontario school system. In the meantime, educators have a unique opportunity to affect change in their school communities. Equipping educators with strategies to increase physical activity can help build classrooms and school communities that support girls and gender-diverse students to participate more fully in school-based movement opportunities.
MPARC’s Sarah Ryan shared these tips for educators looking to promote student well-being and mental health through physical activity opportunities:
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Integrate physical activity at multiple points throughout the school day.
Whether through Daily Physical Activity (DPA), Health and Physical Education (H&PE) classes, or other opportunities throughout the day – get moving with your students in new and exciting ways! Embedding physical activity throughout the school day provides opportunities to explore a variety of different movement types, allowing students to determine what kinds of movement feel best for their bodies. If you’re looking for tools to help begin introducing different forms of movement in bite-sized, accessible ways, consider exploring Ophea’s DPA Every Day and 50 Fitness GIFs resources!
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Foster affirming environments for every student to participate.
Intentional movement offerings that center on the needs, desires, and interests of a wider range of students while embodying inclusive, affirming values can expand access to physical activity at school and improve mental health outcomes for students. Many factors go into fostering such environments, and Ophea is here to help! Educators can use Ophea resources like Culturally Responsive and Relevant Pedagogy in Health and Physical Education, Disability-Centred Movement: Supporting Inclusive Physical Education, Stop. Start. Consider!: Student-Centred Practices in Health and Physical Education, and Play for All: Strategies for Inclusive Intramurals to examine their practices and ensure they reflect a commitment to diversity and inclusive, welcoming learning environments for every student.
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Take advantage of opportunities to be (or provide!) a role model
MPARC found that 30% of adolescent girls identify teachers as important role models, underscoring the opportunity that educators and school leaders (e.g., coaches) have in actively retaining girls in sport and physical activity. Further, 40% of girls expressed a desire for role models that share their gender identity. Educators can provide students with opportunities to see themselves in their learning by using resources that display and celebrate a variety of skill levels, skin tones, abilities, and identities, and by selecting guest speakers with the same considerations. A major takeaway from MPARC’s research is the role that educators can play when it comes to supporting their students in understanding that sport, physical activity, and movement are truly for everyone, which can in turn help disrupt barriers to participation with their roots in harmful stereotypes and prejudices (e.g., “Girls don’t play sports.”).
Recommendations for Community/System-Level Leaders
As sport outside of schools becomes increasingly expensive and inaccessible for many, school-based sport and physical activity remain powerful opportunities to establish health-supporting habits that enable every student to thrive throughout their lifetimes.
Many school and school board improvement plans center on student well-being but could benefit from more explicitly connecting ways to increase physical activity to directly support this goal while also expanding access to the other myriad benefits of healthy, active living. The connections between students’ participation in school sport and improved mental health outcomes, feelings of belonging, and educational outcomes are evident (Canadian Women & Sport, 2022), and yet MPARC found that only 14% of school leaders identify increasing physical activity among their top three priorities.
Connecting student well-being explicitly to movement opportunities represents a clear strategic shift in approaching the goal of improving student well-being. School board leaders can help spark momentum by:
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Explicitly promoting physical activity as a means of improving student mental health.
Whether in school improvement plans, board improvement plans, or your communications with parents/caregivers and the broader school community – talk about the connection between movement and mental health, and promote the physical activity opportunities on offer in your school community!
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Center student voice and choice in program planning.
This not only allows programs to be directly informed by students, but also fosters an environment where students feel empowered to develop and implement their own initiatives. Engaging with student groups, especially those that represent historically and currently underserved racialized and marginalized students such as Black Student Associations (BSAs), Gay-Straight Alliances (GSA’s), and Indigenous student groups, is empowering and supports program development that is more likely to encourage participation!
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Foster inclusive, accessible environments for every student.
Designing programming for every student to thrive in sport and physical education ensures that students have entry points that cater to multiple differing skill levels, abilities, and interests. School leaders can also remove barriers to participation by aligning resources with policy to ensure that resources (e.g., access schedules for fields and/or gymnasiums and recreational equipment) are equitably distributed, and that every student can access suitable facilities (e.g., changerooms, bathrooms).
What’s next?
MPARC’s findings indicate that, despite documented evidence of the connection between physical activity and mental health, not enough Ontario schools are explicitly promoting physical activity. With declining rates of physical activity accompanying reports of increased mental health concerns among children and youth, MPARC’s research highlights an opportunity to take a holistic approach to student wellness. As educators, leaders, and school community members, we have an opportunity to reinforce the relationship between movement and well-being; school sport and physical activity can be beacons of feelings of belonging at school, empowering students to support their physical and mental health in tandem and as part of an interconnected whole.
Knowledge products detailing these findings are currently in development. Stay tuned for further updates to this exciting work!
References:
Canadian Women & Sport. Rally Report. 2022.
ParticipACTION. Rallying for Resilience: Keeping Children and Youth Active in a Changing Climate. 2024.