Cycling sparks 'significant' mental health improvements in adolescents, new US study finds

The links between cycling and mental health have been further underlined by a new study in the US focusing on middle school students, who showed a significant improvement in psychological well-being following a two-month cycling program.

Published in the Frontiers in Sports and Active Living journal, the study involved more than 1,000 middle school children across 20 schools in the US, who were put through the Riding For Focus course, a 6-8 week program from the Outride non-profit organisation, designed to introduce adolescents to basic cycling skills and proficiency, as well as physical activity.

The research was conducted in the context of what the journal describes as a "deteriorating" mental health situation among adolescents in the US, where “one in six school-aged children are diagnosed with mental health disorders”.

The participants in the study were asked to complete two separate surveys to assess their mental health, the WHO-5 Well-Being Index and a youth self-report version of Pediatric Symptom Checklist. They completed these twice, either side of the cycling program.

The results showed “significant” improvements on both surveys, with a decrease of participants in the ‘critical risk zone’ from 26% to 21% in the case of the WHO-5 test and from 30% to 27% in the case of the PSC test.

“We saw that there were mental health benefits across the entire population," the study's senior author, Sean Wilson, told NPR. “The main thing would be more of a positive outlook on life.”

Co-author Esther Walker added: “[Adolescents] are starting to experience all sorts of social pressures, anxiety, stress from school, stress from home. So it's a really important time to provide additional outlets to explore not only physical activity, but also the freedom and relief that can come with going out for a bike ride during the day."

While exercise in general is said to be an important tool in looking after mental health, cycling is among the best forms, according to Allan Reiss, a professor of psychiatry Stanford University.

"It engages all of these other parts of brain function, such as sensory perception," he told NPR. "You are looking at your hearing, you're balancing, you're navigating and turning. Oftentimes, you're doing it with someone else, so there's the positive effect of company or group activity."