Current anxiety problems and organized activity participation among U.S. adolescents

The study objectives were to examine the relationships between healthcare provider-confirmed current anxiety problems and organized activity participation including sports, clubs/organizations, and other activities. We used data from the 2018–2019 National Survey of Children’s Health including 24,356 adolescents 12–17 years old. Poisson and logistic regression analyses were conducted. About 13% of adolescents had current anxiety problems. Poisson regression results indicated that adolescents with anxiety problems were less likely to participate in a higher total number of organized activities compared to children without anxiety problems. Similarly, logistic regression results indicated that adolescents with anxiety problems were at reduced odds of participating in at least one organized activity compared to adolescents without anxiety problems. Specific to activity type, adolescents with anxiety problems were at reduced odds of participating in sports and clubs/organizations. Study findings should be considered when creating and implementing community health promotion and education prevention programs and interventions for adolescents.