"Big Talks for Little Sports People"

Authors: Deb Agnew (Ph.d), Shane Pill (Ph.d), Phillip Slee (Ph.d), Jessica Skuza (Ms)

Please visit our website - https://bigtalkslittlepeople.com/

School and community sport settings provide an impor­tant platform to reach and engage young sports people with mental health supports in light  of the high participation rate of young people in sport. A range of mental health programs have been developed for implementation in sport settings and research demonstrates their promise in supporting mental health and well-being (eg Bresin et al, 2017). Moreover, sport coaches are understood to play a significant role in creating a safe environment for young sports people. Recent research has provided compelling evidence that sport and physical activity can significantly improve children's mental health. A major report commissioned by Sport England and conducted by Edge Hill University reviewed 143 studies and found strong and consistent evidence that sport and exercise positively impact diagnosed mental health conditions (Sport England, 2024).

We adapted a previously evaluated program ‘’Big Talks for Little People: Child Mental Health Program’’ for use in sporting clubs. Big Talks for Little People has a robust evidence base, demonstrating improved understanding of thoughts, feelings, and behaviours, and normalising mental health conversations in classrooms. The sport program required a different delivery mechanism to the schools’ program. This mechanism was the Teaching Personal and Social Responsibility (TPSR) strategies of an awareness talk at the start of training and a group reflection talk at the end of training. Unlike a school setting where participants would be in a health education lesson, participants were at the sports club for the sports training. Therefore, the explicit focus on mental health education occurred at the start of training to educate and then set players’ intentions for behaviour during training. At the end of training the reflection talk returned players to the goal they set for training and discussion how they could take the behaviour into how they behaved away from the sport club.

In our evaluation of the ‘Big Talks for Little Sports people’ program we found that:

·       Students liked coming to physical education classes

·       Liked being with their team mates

·       Felt connected to the teacher

·       Looked forward to having their parents at the game

·       Felt a sense of pleasure and accomplishment through sport

Teacher Comment:” It's just things about like ways we can show be a better teammate or like show more perseverance or like things students are saying to their friends to get them to participate or join in”.

Student Comment:” I think it's about, like, try your best and keep going if like say you miss a goal and like some sport just keep going”.

References

Breslin, G., Haughey, T. J., Donnelly, P., Kearney, C., & Prentice, G. (2017). Promoting mental health awareness in sport clubs. Journal of Public Mental Health, 16(2), 55-62.

Slee, P., Pill, S., & Agnew, D. (2025). Big talks for little people: A pilot study of a classroom based mental health program. Health Promotion Journal of Australia, 36(2), e70014. https://doi.org/10.1002/hpja.70014

Sport England. (2024). New findings show impact of exercise on children's mental health conditions. https://www.sportengland.org/news-and-inspiration/new-findings-show impact-exercise-children’s-mental-health-conditions.

Contact details for further information

Deb Agnew deb.agnew@flinders.edu.auShane Pill shane.pill@flinders.edu.au

Visit our Big Talks for LIttle People website https://bigtalkslittlepeople.com/