Peer-reviewed article
Associations of social avoidance and sport engagement with physical health indicators among schoolchildren: a cross-sectional study.
Li Y ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-haiku-4-5-20251001This study examined how social avoidance and sport engagement relate to physical health in 923 schoolchildren in Beijing. Children who avoided social situations engaged less in sports, while those who engaged more in sports had better physical fitness, lower BMI, and lower rates of overweight and obesity. The associations were small to modest and the study could not determine whether these relationships are causal.
Key points
- Higher social avoidance was associated with lower total sport engagement (β = -0.106)
- Higher sport engagement was associated with higher BMI-excluded physical fitness (β = 0.189)
- Higher sport engagement was associated with lower BMI (β = -0.141) and lower odds of overweight/obesity (OR = 0.721)
- All four main associations remained significant after statistical correction
- No nonlinear (quadratic) associations were found
Limitations
This is a cross-sectional study, so it cannot establish temporal or causal relationships between social avoidance, sport engagement, and physical health outcomes. The associations were small to modest in size, and the exploratory latent profile analysis did not identify distinct risk groups beyond general engagement levels.
Abstract
Background This study examined cross-sectional associations of social avoidance with sport engagement and of sport engagement with physical health indicators among schoolchildren. Potential nonlinear associations were also assessed. Exploratory latent profile analysis (LPA) examined whether cognitive, affective, and relational engagement provided information beyond the continuous total engagement score. Methods This cross-sectional study included 923 students in Grades 3-5 from one Beijing school. Questionnaires assessed social avoidance and sport engagement across sport settings. Routine school records provided physical fitness, height, and weight, from which a BMI-excluded physical fitness score was calculated. Classroom-clustered linear and logistic regression models examined associations of social avoidance with total sport engagement and of sport engagement with BMI-excluded physical fitness, BMI, and overweight/obesity. Models adjusted for sex, grade, school-based sport participation, and out-of-school sport participation. Holm correction was applied to four focal associations and four corresponding quadratic tests. LPA was exploratory and accounted for classroom clustering. Results The adjusted regression analyses included 913 students. Higher social avoidance was associated with lower total sport engagement (β = -0.106, 95% CI [-0.178, -0.034]). Higher sport engagement was associated with higher BMI-excluded physical fitness (β = 0.189, 95% CI [0.118, 0.260]), lower BMI (β = -0.141, 95% CI [-0.212, -0.070]), and lower odds of overweight/obesity (OR = 0.721, 95% CI [0.628, 0.827]). All four associations remained significant after Holm correction, whereas none of the quadratic terms did. LPA criteria did not identify an unequivocally optimal solution. A descriptive three-class representation yielded model-estimated proportions of 11.0, 39.7, and 49.3% for low, moderate, and high engagement levels, respectively. The three dimensions increased broadly in parallel, and assigned class membership was not used in outcome analyses. Conclusion Higher social avoidance co-occurred with lower sport engagement, whereas higher sport engagement co-occurred with higher BMI-excluded physical fitness, lower BMI, and lower odds of overweight/obesity. These associations were small to modest and do not establish temporal or causal relationships. The exploratory classes primarily represented ordered levels along a general engagement continuum and did not support profile-based risk classification.