Masteroppgave i folkehelsevitenskap – Universitetet i Agder 2016The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between sports participation, sense of
belonging and psychological distress in a sample of Norwegian adolescents during a one-year
period. We also wanted investigate the potential mediating effect of sense of belonging on the
relationship between the degree of sports participation and psychological distress one year
later. This longitudinal study is part of a larger project called "the Relevance of Physical
Activity Contexts in Every-Day Life of Adolescents" (REPAC). This study is based on data
collections made in spring 2014 (N = 3049) and 2015 (N = 2890) where students from Aust
and Vest-Agder, Oslo/Akershus and Østfold participated. The adolescents were around 12 and
16 years in 2014 and around 13 and 17 years in 2015. The questionnaire was developed to
investigate how different activity contexts affect young people's everyday lives. Correlation
and mediation analyzes (bootstrapping) were conducted. The results showed that sports
participating adolescents had lower levels of psychological distress than non-sport
participating adolescents. The present study reports a negative relationship between sports
participation psychological distress among sports participating adolescents. In addition, the
results showed that the level of sports participation predicted lower levels of psychological
distress a year later, mediated by sense of belonging. Previous levels of psychological distress
and sense of belonging were controlled for. The findings in this study are discussed in light of
theory and previous research.
Key words: Physical activity, sports participation, perceived affiliation, mental health,
psychological distress, youth, mediation
