An Empirical Analysis of the Effects of Physical Exercise on Adolescent Mental Health and Its Mediating Mechanisms

Abstract

The use of physical exercise for the purpose of maintaining adolescents’ mental health is an important topic of psychological research. However, there is no unified conclusion on the effect of physical exercise time on the level of mental health. This paper investigates the causal effect of physical activity on adolescent mental health using a multilayer linear modeling approach and a Bootstrap method to test for possible mediating effects. The results of the study showed that there was a nonlinear inverted U-shaped relationship between physical activity time and adolescent mental health, with a threshold value of 105 min, and the results of the mediating effect analysis showed that self-assessment of health, self-confidence, academic stress, peer relationships, and positive peer behaviour were important mediating mechanisms between physical activity and mental health. The results of the mediation effect analysis showed that physical exercise was an important mediating mechanism between self-assessment, confidence, academic stress, peer relationship, and positive peer behaviour.