The Relationship Between Physical Activity And College Students’ Negative Emotions

Background:College students are burdened with many academic,social,and employment responsibilities,and the resulting excessive stress,anxiety,depression,and other negative emotions have led to the frequent occurrence of mental health problems and suicides in this group.How to effectively reduce negative emotions among college students has also become the focus of academic research.Numerous studies have found that the role of physical self-esteem and global self-esteem in the relationship between physical activity and negative emotions is worth exploring.Objective:To investigate the interactions among four variables:physical activity,physical self-esteem,global self-esteem and negative emotion,and to test whether there is a chain mediating effect of physical self-esteem and global self-esteem between physical activity and negative emotion,to reveal the mechanism of the effect of physical activity on negative emotion.Methods:The survey was conducted on 1014 college students in Shandong University using literature,questionnaire and mathematical statistics,and the Physical Activity Rating Scale-3,Depression-Anxiety-Stress Scale,Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale and Physical SelfPerception Profile were used to investigate the physical activity level,negative emotions,global self-esteem level and physical self-esteem level of college students,and the data were processed and analyzed by using SPSS 24.0 and its plug-in PROCESS 3.5.Results:(1)The average value of physical activity exercise of college students is low.The physical self-esteem level of college students is at a normal high level,and the global self-esteem level is at a normal level.The negative emotions(depression,anxiety and stress)of college students are at a medium high level.(2)There were gender differences in physical activity levels among college students(p<0.001),physical self-esteem differed in terms of grade,major,and home location(ps<0.05),differences in global self-esteem by home location(p<0.001),and differences in depression levels by home location(p<0.05).(3)Physical activity,physical self-esteem,global self-esteem and three negative emotions of depression,anxiety and stress were significantly correlated with each other.(ps<0.01).(4)The mediated effect values of physical and global self-esteem for physical activity and depression were-0.042(95%CI:-0.058,-0.029),their mediated effect values for physical activity and anxiety were-0.041(95%CI:-0.057,-0.028),and their mediated effect values for physical activity and stress were-0.040(95%CI:-0.056,-0.027),these three chains mediated the pathway effect significantly.The simple mediated effect of physical self-esteem between physical activity and stress was significant with an effect value of-0.015(95%CI:-0.030,-0.003).The mediating effect of global self-esteem between physical activity and the 3 negative emotions of depression,anxiety,and stress was not significant.Conclusion:(1)College students with higher levels of physical activity tend to be less likely to have negative emotions and are able to exhibit lower levels of depression,anxiety,and stress.(2)Physical activity can enhance the physical self-esteem level of college students,which in turn can increase their global self-esteem level and ultimately alleviate three negative emotions of depression,anxiety,and stress in this group.In addition,physical activity can also reduce the stressful emotions of the college student group by increasing their physical self-esteem levels.