  We study the impact of teenage sports participation on early-adulthood health
using longitudinal data from the National Study of Youth and Religion. We focus
on two primary outcomes measured at ages 23--28 -- self-rated health and total
score on the PHQ9 Patient Depression Questionnaire -- and control for several
potential confounders related to demographics and family socioeconomic status.
To probe the possibility that certain types of sports participation may have
larger effects on health than others, we conduct a matched observational study
at each level within a hierarchy of exposures. Our hierarchy ranges from
broadly defined exposures (e.g., participation in any organized after-school
activity) to narrow (e.g., participation in collision sports). We deployed an
ordered testing approach that exploits the hierarchical relationships between
our exposure definitions to perform our analyses while maintaining a fixed
family-wise error rate. Compared to teenagers who did not participate in any
after-school activities, those who participated in sports had statistically
significantly better self-rated and mental health outcomes in early adulthood.
