The more Scouting children do, the less anxious they will be as adults

Living outdoor experiences, learning from their relationships with their peers, challenging their abilities to gain more and more independence are the key principles of the scouting world that help the overall well-being of the child, as well as the adult he or she will become.

This was shown in a study carried out by three researchers from the University of Edinburgh on a sample of almost 10,000 British adults, all born in 1958. Among these, at least one in four took part in Scouts (or similar groups) during their youth, showing a level of mental well-being higher than the average of other people of the same age.

The research, entitled “Be(ing) prepared: Guide and Scout participation, childhood social position and mental health at age 50-a prospective birth cohort study“, established in particular that states of anxiety affect former scouts 18% less than other adults grown up in the same period.

Researchers supposed that this is related to the skills that children develop by participating in Scout troops: resilience, strong emotional ties with peers, sense of belonging to a group, continuous and progressive self-education. Participating in a Scout group is not just a way to spend adventurous weekends immersed in nature with friends, it is a real gym of life.

Learning to count on oneself, to cooperate with others, to find solutions with the desire to learn and do many outdoor activities, lay the foundations for a better mental well-being. The activities which are done in these groups help to develop the ability to recover from common stress, arriving at reducing the inequalities in terms of mental health associated with the socio-economic conditions of childhood.