The Impact of Physical Activity on Mental Health

Zusatztext

Volume 1 of the CEREPS Book Series entitled "The Impact of Physical Activity on Mental Health. Emotional, Psychological and Social Well-Being" is a collection of nine selected presentations given during the CEREPS Summit 2026 at the University of Seville, June 24-26. The anthology is divided into four sections: In Section One "Development of Physical Education and Sport Pedagogy in the European Context" Arja Sääkslahti and Roland Naul commemorate the outstanding achievement of Prof. Dr. Risto Telama (1936-2022) in Physical Education and Youth Sport research. Roland Naul analysed in his chapter the policy context of PE and Sport Pedagogy mid of the 2010s when CEREPS was founded. In Section Two "Physical Activity and Mental Health in Early Childhood" three other chapters refer to empirical studies on the relationship between PA and mental health development (Kathrin Bretz; Manuel Leitner and Efstathios Christodoulis, Olia Tsiytanidou, Manolis Adamakis & David Grecic). In Section Three "Monitoring of Sport Development and Physical Fitness in Children and Adolescence" Erin Gerlach & Wolf-Dietrich Brettschneider report about socialization and selection effects of sport participation in primary and secondary school children in a 10-year longitudinal study in the city of Paderborn; Gregor Jurak, Shawnda Morrison & Bojan Leskosek refer to the international FITBack test battery as a tool for measurement and validation of age-related physical fitness items of young people. Finally, in Section Four "Physical Activity for Mental Health and Academic Achievement" Giyasettin Demirhan describes how results of brain break programmes supported cognitive development and Swantje Scharenberg with her many co-workers from five different European Universities give insight about the needs and problems of dual career elite students in sports.

Autorenportrait

Francis Ries is a Professor at the University of Seville, Faculty of Educational Sciences, Department of Physical Education and Sport. He holds a PhD in Physical Education and extensive international academic experience. His research focuses on physical activity and mental health, physical education teacher education, and the promotion of healthy lifestyles in children and adolescents. He has published widely in international journals and books, coordinated European research projects, and served as invited speaker at conferences across Europe, Asia, and Latin America. He has supervised numerous doctoral theses and master's dissertations, contributing to the training of future researchers and teachers. He is an active member of international networks such as CEREPS and Erasmus+ projects. Roland Naul served as a university professor for sport science and sport pedagogy at the University of Essen, later Duisburg-Essen (1980-2013). From 2013 to 2020 he was Senior Professor for European Studies in Physical Education and Youth Sport at the Institute of Sport Science, University of Münster. In 1992 he founded the Willibald Gebhardt Research Institute which is now an official IOC Olympic Study and Research Centre at the University of Münster and in 2015 he co-founded CEREPS (European Research Council of Physical Education and Youth Sport). Roland Naul has published 35 books and more than 500 articles including book chapters on physical education, youth sports and Olympic education in different languages.

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