Author(s): SUN, S., XIONG, D., ZHANG, X., ZHANG, Z., Institution: PEKING UNIVERSITY, Country: CHINA, Abstract-ID: 2054

The relationship between physical activity and subjective well-being among adolescents
Shiya Sun1, Deliang Xiong 2,Xingmei Zhang3, Zhanjia Zhang4
1Peking University, Beijing, China 2East China Normal University
Physical activity has been shown to have numerous benefits, including promoting overall well-being, preventing diseases, and improving cardiorespiratory health. However, there is limited research on how physical activity specifically relates to subjective well-being, a key concept in positive psychology, in adolescents.
Purpose: This study was to investigate the associations between physical activity and subjective well-being and mental health in adolescents. A cross-sectional study was conducted, involving a sample of 288 junior high school students from several public middle schools in Beijing and Shanghai. The average age of the participants was 13.97 years, with 56.3% of them being girls. Multiple psychological indicators were assessed including happiness by Subjective Happiness Scale (SHS), depressive symptoms by the Adolescent Depression Scale (KADS-11), and life satisfaction by the Student Multidimensional Life Satisfaction Scale (BMSLSS-PTPB) were used as dependent variables in the analysis. Physical activity was measured using the Physical Activity Rating Scale (PARS-3). Three multiple regression models were established with happiness, life satisfaction, and depressive symptoms as the dependent variables, respectively. Physical activity was treated as the independent variable in each model with age and gender controlled as covariates.
Methods: The results indicated that physical activity did not have a significant association with depression and happiness (p’s > 0.05). In contrast, physical activity is positively associated with life satisfaction (β = 0.119, p = 0.042). Regarding the covariates, older adolescents showed higher levels of depressive symptoms (β = 0.186, p = 0.002) and lower levels of happiness (β = -0.169 p = 0.005) compared with their younger counterpart. In addition, girls reported higher levels of depressive symptoms than did boys (β = 0.185, p = 0.002).

Conclusion: This study suggests that physical activity has a selective association with the components of subjective well-being in adolescents. Particularly, increased engagement in physical activity is associated with greater life satisfaction but not with happiness and depressive symptoms in adolescents. Future research should explore the mechanisms behind this selective association and determine whether specific types of physical activity may impact happiness and depressive symptoms.