Elhuyar’s Zurrunbiloa project, which seeks to focus on the mental health of young people, has this time reflected on the sports field. The study has been carried out with more than 500 adolescents and has counted on the collaboration of several specialists, especially in the field of psychology, sports training, sports research and anthropology. The aim is to eliminate this invisible violence against adolescents, which is fundamental to the social transformation necessary to tackle the problem of the mental health of young people. This project, which seeks to reflect on the sports field, has been collaborated by Kutxa Fundazioa and the City of Elgoibar.

From the analysis carried out with adolescents, it has been concluded that those who practice sport have better health markers. Not only that, but sport, in addition to promoting physical health, has the capacity to strengthen the feeling of group belonging of adolescents, two fundamental variables for mental health. For 85% of adolescents, the sports group is the strongest social network.

Sport has a great social prestige and the study has shown that adolescents who stay out of sport show signs of vulnerability. For example, being left out of the network of friendships created around sport reduces their ability to ask for help: 61% do not ask for help when they need it, compared to the general trend of 37% of adolescents who do ask for it. This is a worrying fact, as the ability to ask for help is essential to ensure their mental health.

If sport is practised with an inclusive and wellness focused approach, it is a privileged space for improving the mental health of young people. However, your emotional health is not always guaranteed in sport, as there are also pressure dynamics that can harm your emotional health. This study has identified 6 dynamics of violent behavior: romanticizing pain, authoritarian attitudes, ridiculing vulnerability, excessive expectations of adults, violent language of sport and acting as silent accomplices.

It is a question of eliminating the invisibility of violence against adolescents, which is fundamental to the social transformation necessary to address the problem of the mental health of young people. Thus, the Zurrunbiloa project (https://zurrunbiloa.eus/kirola-eta-aisia/) has identified several pressure dynamics, detected deficits regarding gender and inclusivity and made proposals for agents involved in sport, with the collaboration of specialists in the field of psychology, sports training, sports research and anthropology. Some of them are Iñaki Alonso, football coach, director of the consultancy Kunina Sport and Education and creator of the first protocol for the protection of children of Athletic; and Ainhoa Azurmendi, researcher of sports psychology of the EHU, sports advisor of Avento and consultant for the Real Sociedad, the Provincial Council of Gipuzkoa and the sports federations.

Project Zurrunbiloa

The Zurrunbiloa project addresses the mental health problem of youth from an innovative perspective. It proposes to look at and respond to the problem collectively. Society exerts pressure on young people at many levels and their emotional and mental health is affected by this pressure, which can be academic, sports, aesthetic, social... According to the expert staff, the excess expectations of adults presses them to succeed at all levels, to the point of negatively affecting their emotional and mental health. If structural factors are not changed and pressure dynamics are identified, the problem will hardly be overcome.

The project has been developed in three phases. In the first phase, with the collaboration of experts and four young people who have offered their testimonies, a series of five audiovisuals has been created. In a second phase, a diagnosis has been made at the local level in Elgoibar, in which the main problems and their causes have been identified. And, in the third phase, society will be given a leading role. Based on the two years of conclusions, a process of reflection will be opened with the agents working in the field of adolescence in the municipality, in order to agree on the road map of the municipality.

The Zurrunbiloa project has been developed by Elhuyar, with the support of Danobatgroup and the collaboration of the Kutxa Foundation and the Elgoibar City Council.