ReviewBiological psychiatry. Cognitive neuroscience and neuroimaging2021
The Roles of Physical Activity, Exercise, and Fitness in Promoting Resilience During Adolescence: Effects on Mental Well-Being and Brain Development.
Review in Biological psychiatry. Cognitive neuroscience and neuroimaging, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 180 papers, 8 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
180 citing papers in PubMed, 8 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 255 citations in OpenAlex.
- The effect of exercise interventions on enhancing psychological resilience: a systematic review and meta-analysis.BMC psychology · 2026Pooled it
- 2025 Update to the Female Athlete Triad Coalition Consensus Statement Part 2: Clinical Guidelines for Screening, Diagnosis, Treatment, and Return to Play for Adolescents and Adults.Sports medicine (Auckland, N.Z.) · 2026Guideline
- Optimal dosage of group-based organized physical activity for enhancing social abilities in autistic children: insights from a multilevel meta-analysis.The international journal of behavioral nutrition and physical activity · 2025Pooled it
- Physical activity and two-year change in adolescent well-being in nine countries.Journal of research on adolescence : the official journal of the Society for Research on Adolescence · 2025Pooled it
- Blue health among children, adolescents, and youth psychological well-being: a systematic review of swimming and aquatic therapy for mental health.Frontiers in psychology · 2025Pooled it
- Does physical activity-based intervention decrease repetitive negative thinking? A systematic review.PloS one · 2025Pooled it
- Greenness and chronic respiratory health issues: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Frontiers in public health · 2023Pooled it
- Intervention of Physical Activity for University Students with Anxiety and Depression during the COVID-19 Pandemic Prevention and Control Period: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Pooled it
- Linking 23 physical activity intensity levels to health-related quality of life in 10-year-old children.BMC research notes · 2025Trial
- The effects of physical activity on mental health in adolescents with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder: a randomized controlled trial.The international journal of behavioral nutrition and physical activity · 2025Trial
- Enhancing Physical Activity and Psychological Well-Being in College Students during COVID-19 through WeActive and WeMindful Interventions.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Trial
- Association of Weekly Moderate-to-Vigorous Physical Activity with Subjective Vitality and Mental Toughness in Spanish Adolescents Aged 10-16 Years.Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Young minds in distress: Exploring the global rise in youth mental health diagnoses.Molecular psychiatry · 2026Review
- Recreational Activities and Youth Outcomes: An Explainable Machine Learning Study.JAACAP open · 2026Article
- Unsupervised Clustering Reveals Sociodemographic Determinants of Differential Brain Development During Adolescence.Human brain mapping · 2026Article
- Physical Activity and the Development of Self-Regulation in Early Childhood: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Journal of Intelligence · 2026Review
- The Relationship Between Physical Activity, Social Support, and Life Satisfaction Among Female College Students: A Variable- and Person-Centered Analysis.Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Adolescents' Strategies to Manage Mental Health Challenges In and After the Pandemic: Two Mixed-Methods Studies.Research on child and adolescent psychopathology · 2026Article
- Relationships between vigorous physical activity and psychological complaints in adolescents: findings from 240,951 participants.BMC public health · 2026Article
- How physical exercise influences children's social-emotional competence: an empirical study based on a chain mediation model.BMC psychology · 2026Article
120 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Adolescence is a critical yet vulnerable period for developing behaviors important for mental well-being. The existing literature suggests that physical activity (PA), exercise, and aerobic fitness promote well-being and reduce risk of mental health problems. In this review, we focus on PA, exercise, and fitness as modifiable resilience factors that may help promote self-regulation via strengthening of top-down control of bottom-up processes in the brain, thereby acting as a buffer against mental health problems during this period of vulnerability. First, we briefly review the link between PA, exercise, and aerobic fitness with mental well-being and reduced mental health problems in adolescence. Then we present how impairments in self-regulation, which involves top-down control to modulate bottom-up processes, are common across a wide range of mental health disorders. Finally, we use the extant neuroimaging literature to highlight how neural systems underlying top-down control continue to develop across adolescence, and propose that PA, exercise, and aerobic fitness may facilitate resilience through strengthening individual brain regions as well as large-scale neural circuits to improve emotional and behavioral regulation. Future neuroimaging studies assessing the effects of PA, exercise, and aerobic fitness at various developmental stages in each sex and studies considering the characteristics (e.g., frequency, intensity, type) and social context of PA and exercise are vital to better understand both macro- and microscale mechanisms by which these behaviors and attributes may facilitate mental health resilience during adolescent development.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.