ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Public Health
Sec. Children and Health
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2025.1515522
This article is part of the Research TopicPhysical Education, Health and Education Innovation-Vol IIIView all 9 articles
A study on the influence of family social capital on participation in adolescent extracurricular sports and public health
Provisionally accepted
Wenjie Sui1
Miaohong Huang2*- 1Huaqiao University, Quanzhou, Fujian, China
- 2Xiamen Institute of Technology, Xiamen, China
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With increasing academic pressure, extracurricular tutoring and interest classes are growing rapidly. This trend is especially evident in youth sports interest classes. Families allocate limited resources to these activities, directly influencing their social capital. This study examines how family social capital affects adolescent participation in extracurricular sports and its broader implications for public health. This study uses longitudinal data from the China Family Tracking Survey (CFPS, 2010(CFPS, -2018, N = 12,750) , N = 12,750) to analyze the relationship between family social capital, extracurricular sports participation, and adolescent health outcomes. A Backpropagation (BP) neural network model was applied to assess the predictive power of family social capital on sports engagement. It also evaluated public health indicators, such as obesity, anxiety, and depression rates. Regional disparities were also examined to highlight differences between urban and rural areas. Adolescents from high-social-capital families had significantly higher sports participation (85%) than those from low-social-capital families (25%). They also had lower obesity rates (10% vs. 30%) and reduced anxiety and depression by 25% and 20%, respectively.Parental engagement increased the likelihood of sports participation by 15%, while educational resources positively impacted adolescent well-being. Regional disparities were evident, with urban adolescents participating at 70%, compared to 40% in rural areas. The findings show that higher family social capital improves adolescents' physical and mental health. It also helps reduce public health risks such as obesity, anxiety, and depression. In addition, it increases the participation of young people in various physical activities. This study emphasizes the need to improve family social capital and address regional inequalities. These efforts can promote public health and provide equitable access to extracurricular sports for adolescents.
Keywords: Public Health, Obesity, Anxiety, Depression, educational resources, CFPS data, Family social capital, youth extracurricular sports
Received: 24 Oct 2024; Accepted: 20 May 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Sui and Huang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Miaohong Huang, Xiamen Institute of Technology, Xiamen, China
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