Team Sports Reduces
Risky Behavior in Teens

Physical activity and team sports offer teenagers more than just the obvious exercise-related health benefits.

High school students who take part in team sports and are also physically active outside school may be at reduced risk for engaging in risky sexual behavior and for using drugs or cigarettes, says a U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) study.

The researchers analyzed surveys completed by 15,349 American high school students. They found that 41.9 percent of the students were both physically active and participated in team sports, 22.1 percent were physically active but did not take part in team sports, 12.6 percent were physically non-active team members, and 22.3 percent were non-active and didn't play team sports.

The study also found more female students (29.3 percent) were non-active than males (15.3 percent) and that more male students (48.9 percent) were both active and took part in team sports than female students (34.8 percent).

"Overall, being both physically active and a team sports participant was associated with a lower prevalence of several health risk behaviors," the authors write.

"Contrary to the results of other studies, active team male students were not more likely than their active non-team and non-active peers to have used alcohol, to have ever had sex, or to have initiated sexual intercourse at an early age. They were also no less likely to have used cigarettes or marijuana," the authors write.

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