The relationship between physical exercise and school adaptation of junior students: A chain mediating model

The impact of moderate-intensity basketball intervention on the physical self-esteem and school adjustment of first-year high school students

Object

This study conducted an 8-week experiment with the basketball sports intervention program to explore the relationship between the basketball sports intervention program and the physical self-esteem and school adjustment of first-year high school students, providing references for first-year high school students' school adjustment and related research.

Methods

Using convenient sampling,88 students in two classes of grade one in a senior high school in Changzhou were selected as the experimental research objects and were randomly divided into experimental groups (basketball) 44 people (20 male and 24 female; control group routine physical education) 44 people (23 male and 21 female). The exercise intervention lasted 8-week, 3-times-a-week with about 30 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise each time. The control group had normal sports activities, and the exercise intensity was not monitored. The Physical Self-esteem Scale and the School Adaptation Scale were used to measure the data in a group manner before and after the experiment. All data were statistically analyzed with SPSS26.0.

Results

(1) After 8 weeks of basketball intervention, the post-test level of school adaptation of first-year high school students was significantly higher than the pre-test (p < 0.01), and the post-test level of physical self-esteem was significantly higher than the pre-test (p < 0.01). (2) Basketball intervention can directly affect the school adaptation of first-year high school students and indirectly affect the school adaptation through physical self-esteem. The direct effect was 86.79%, and the indirect effect was 13.21%.

Conclusion

(1) Intervention of moderate intensity basketball can improve first-year high school students' school adaptation and physical self-esteem. (2) Intervention of moderate intensity basketball can directly improve first-year high school students' and school adaptation by improving individual physical self-esteem. Physical self-esteem plays a partial intermediary role between basketball and school adaptation.

Physical activity and social anxiety symptoms among Chinese college students: a serial mediation model of psychological resilience and sleep problems

BACKGROUND

Social anxiety symptoms are common and harmful psychological illness in college students. Although some studies have illustrated that physical activity could reduce social anxiety symptoms, the specific mechanism is still unclear. Based on theoretical studies on resilience and sleep, this study constructed a serial mediation model to explore whether they mediate between physical activity and social anxiety symptoms among college students.

METHODS

This study surveyed 9,530 college students from three colleges in China to explore the mediating effect of physical activity and sleep problems between physical activity and social anxiety symptoms. Participants were investigated with the International Physical Activity Questionnaire, Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale, Sleep-related problems, and the Social Interaction Anxiety Scale and the Social Phobia Scale. Correlations between variables were analysed using Pearson correlation analysis and mediation analyses were performed using SPSS PROCESS macro 3.3 software.

RESULT

The study found that physical activity was negatively associated with social anxiety symptoms and sleep problems, but positively with psychological resilience. After controlling for sociodemographic variables, physical activity can not only indirectly alleviate social anxiety symptoms through the separate mediation of psychological resilience and sleep problems, but also through the serial mediation of psychological resilience and sleep problems.

CONCLUSION

These results suggest that improving physical activity levels could reduce social anxiety scores by increasing psychological resilience and sleep quality. This is of great reference significance for the prevention and intervention of college students' mental health.

Association of parent-child discrepancies in educational aspirations with physical fitness, quality of life and school adaptation among adolescents: a multiple mediation model

BACKGROUND

The global public health issue of diminishing physical fitness among adolescents has gained increasing attention. The impact of parents' negative emotions or pressure regarding adolescents' educational aspirations may have a passive impact on the quality of life and adaptation of adolescents in and out of school, and ultimately harm their physical health. This study aims to explore whether parent-child discrepancies in educational aspirations influence physical fitness in adolescents through school adaptation and quality of life.

METHODS

Participants consisted of 9,768 students, males 4,753(48.7%), females 5,015(51.3%), aged 11-19 years, males 14.3 ± 1.92, females 14.4 ± 1.93. The educational aspirations were gauged using a six-point scale for expectation scores. Physical fitness assessments were based on criteria from the National Student Physical Fitness and Health Survey. School adaptation was evaluated using the School Social Behaviors Scale-2. Quality of life for adolescents was measured using Chinese version of the Quality of Life Scale for Children and Adolescents. To analyze the multiple mediating effects, structural equation models were used, and 95% confidence intervals were determined through bootstrap methods.

RESULTS

The results illustrated that school adaptation and quality of life played a significant mediating role in the effect of parent-child discrepancies in educational aspirations and physical fitness. There were three intermediary paths were confirmed: (1) discrepancies in educational aspirations → school adaptation → physical fitness (β=-0.088 SE = 0.021; p<0.01; 95% CI: -0.135, -0.05); (2) discrepancies in educational aspirations → quality of life → physical fitness (β=-0.025; SE = 0.011; p = 0.010; 95% CI: -0.050, -0.006); (3) discrepancies in educational aspirations → school adaptation→ quality of life → physical fitness (β=-0.032; SE = 0.014; p = 0.011; 95% CI: -0.061, -0.007).

CONCLUSION

This study suggests that parents should reduce negative emotions and pressure regarding adolescents' academic aspirations may help their children get better physical fitness.

Physical activity and school adaptation among Chinese junior high school students: chain mediation of resilience and coping styles

Background

As a crucial juncture in students' educational journey, junior high school presents challenges that profoundly influence well-being and academic performance. Physical activity emerges as a pivotal factor shaping the holistic development of junior high school students. Beyond its recognized impact on physical and mental health, engaging in regular physical activity proves effective in augmenting students' adaptability to school life. Despite its importance, the mechanisms through which physical activity influences school adaptation in junior high school students remain understudied in academic research.

Objective

In exploring the potential mechanisms, this study aims to validate the mediating roles of resilience and coping styles by examining the association between physical activity and school adaptation among junior high school students.

Methods

This study employed cross-sectional survey approach among junior high school students in China. Through the convenience sampling, 1,488 participants aged from 12 to 16 years old (Average age = 13.59, SD = 1.017) from two Junior high schools in Changsha City, Hunan Province were recruited to complete the Physical Activity Scale, School Adaptation Questionnaire for Junior High School Students, Resilience Scale for Adolescents, and Simple Coping Styles Questionnaire. For data analysis, the SPSS 26.0 and Amos 26.0 were used for statistical processing.

Results

The results showed that physical activity exhibited a significant correlation with school adaptation (r = 0.656, p < 0.001). Resilience, positive coping style and negative coping style played partial mediating roles between physical activity and school adaptation, with the effect size were 0.229, 0.170, 0.171. The chain mediation effect size of resilience and positive coping style was 0.042, while the chain mediation effect size of resilience and negative coping style was 0.050.

Conclusion

Physical activity positively predicts Chinese junior high school students' school adaptation through resilience and coping styles, suggesting that junior high school students should engage in regular physical activity, so as to improve their resilience and positive coping styles, mitigating negative coping styles, thus promoting their school adaptation.

Leisure experience and mobile phone addiction: Evidence from Chinese adolescents

Background

During the Covid-19 pandemic, online learning became the mainstream because of many restrictions on interpersonal relationships. Children spent more and more time using mobile phones, which also aroused public concern.In past research on the prevention of problematic mobile phone use, it was easy to neglect meaningful part of leisure. Hence, based on Davis's cognitive-behavioral model, this study was designed to verify how leisure experience influences mobile phone addiction through maladaptive cognition, which received little attention before.

Methods

By convenient sampling method, it involved a sample of 1007 middle school students recruited from Northern China. We used adolescent leisure experience questionnaire, maladaptive cognition scale and mobile phone addiction scale to measure adolescents' leisure experience, maladaptive cognition and mobile phone addiction respectively.

Results

The findings revealed that leisure experience was negatively correlated with maladaptive cognition (r = -0.21, p < 0.01) and mobile phone addiction (r = -0.20, p < 0.01) respectively. Maladaptive cognition was positively correlated with mobile phone addiction (r = 0.51, p < 0.01). Given gender, age and family economic conditions, the negative predictive effect of leisure experience on mobile phone addiction was significant (β = -0.18，p < 0.001). Besides, the process by which leisure experience predicted mobile phone addiction through maladaptive cognition was significant, indirect effect = -0.10, SE = 0.02, 95 % CI = [-0.13, -0.07].

Conclusions

Adolescents' great leisure experience has a positive impact on mobile phone addiction, which can be achieved by reducing maladaptive cognition. Therefore，it is significant to improve their leisure experience and guide them to perceive their irrational beliefs in leisure and rethink offline leisure and real life from more positive views.

Effects of sports on school adaptability, resilience and cell phone addiction tendency of high school students

BACKGROUND

Sport help promote healthy physical and mental development of high school students. To date, there have been few studies on the effect of sport on school adaptability, resilience and cell phone addiction tendency of high school students.

AIM

To explore the effects of sports on school adaptability, resilience and cell phone addiction of high school students.

METHODS

A stratified random sampling method was used to select 600 students from two high schools in Lhasa, and Physical Activity Rating Scale, School Adjustment Scale for High School Students, Chinese Adolescents Resilience Scale, and Mobile Phone Addiction Index were used for field questionnaire survey.

RESULTS

Sport was positively correlated with school adaptability and resilience (P < 0.01), school adaptability was positively correlated with resilience (P < 0.01) and cell phone addiction was negatively correlated with sports, school adaptability and resilience (P < 0.01). The direct effect of sport on cell phone addiction was significant (P < 0.001), accounting for 20.51% of the total effect. The mediating effect of school adaptability on sport and cell phone addiction was significant (P < 0.001), accounting for 17.38% and 35.36% of the total effect value, respectively. School adjustment and resilience had a significant chain-mediated effect on sport and cell phone addiction (P < 0.001), accounting for 26.75% of the total effect.

CONCLUSION

Sport affected the cell phone addiction tendency of senior high school students through the mediating effect of school adaptability and resilience, and through the chain mediation effect of both.

Physical exercise and psychological health of rural left-behind children: An experiment from China

Background

How to promote the health (especially mental health) growth of left-behind children has become a hot social issue. Physical exercise is usually considered as a positive role in improving the physical and mental health of children, which can be considered to be integrated into the living environment of left-behind children.

Objective

To discuss the changes of left-behind children in psychological health before and after the exercise-based intervention, thus providing a practical approach to improve the psychological growth of this disadvantaged group.

Methods

An exercise-based social intervention experiment was designed and conducted in a township middle school in China, and 200 left-behind children with relatively low psychological health participated in the experiment.

Results

Physical exercise had positive effects on rural left-behind children's sense of hope, self-esteem, self-efficiency, and self-concept, and it seems that the positive effects are durative due to the optimization of living environment. There was no significant difference in the psychological promotion effect of different programs (football and table tennis) on left-behind children. Hope, self-esteem, and self-efficiency significantly mediated the relationship between physical exercise and self-concept of left-behind children.

Conclusion

Physical exercise contributes to promoting the development of rural left-behind children's positive psychology such as hope, self-esteem, self-efficiency, and thus relieving the negative psychology caused by long-term parental-child separation and improving self-concept.