ArticleBMC psychiatry2025
The effect of physical activity on anxiety through sleep quality among Chinese high school students: evidence from cross-sectional study and longitudinal study.
Article in BMC psychiatry, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 7 papers.
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Who cites it
7 citing papers in PubMed.
- Temporal relationship between physical activity, social anxiety, and internet addiction among adolescents: a cross-lagged analysis.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Cyber-victimized and cognitively fogged? Cyberbullying victimization and executive function.BMC public health · 2026Article
- Physical activity motivation is inversely associated with anxiety: a cross-sectional serial mediation analysis involving smartphone addiction symptoms and sleep quality in medical undergraduates.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Article
- The impact of physical activity on executive function in college students: the chain mediating role of anxiety and sleep quality.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Article
- Mind-body exercise and anxiety in middle-aged and older adults: a sequential mediation model of emotion regulation and sleep quality.Frontiers in public health · 2026Article
- Physical exercise moderated the mediating role of anxiety between experiential avoidance and the teenagers BrainRot.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Chain-mediated pathways of adults socioeconomic status affecting physical fitness in Macao: the role of motor skills and moderate to vigorous physical activity.Frontiers in public health · 2025Article
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10 authors.
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Abstract
backgroundAnxiety disorder is a significant concern in the context of mental health among Chinese high school students. Based on cross-sectional study and longitudinal study, this study constructed mediation models in order to evaluate the mediation effects of sleep quality in the improvement of anxiety by physical activity among Chinese high school students.
methodsA total of 32,974 Chinese high school students were surveyed using the International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ), the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), and the Generalized Anxiety Disorder 7-item Scale (GAD-7). We conducted the survey to construct a mediation model of anxiety, and then verified it with longitudinal data. After 12 weeks of exercise, 80 high school students were tested for physical activity level, sleep quality score and anxiety level.
resultsThe mediation model based on cross-sectional study showed a good fit with the data. Physical activity significantly positively predicted sleep quality but negatively predicted anxiety. Sleep quality significantly negatively predicted anxiety and had a mediation effect between physical activity and anxiety. Further longitudinal study proved that physical activity could improve both sleep quality and anxiety among high school students.
conclusionsEvidence from cross-sectional study and longitudinal study indicated the mediation role of sleep quality in the relationship between physical activity and anxiety among high school students, providing a theoretical and practical basis for physical exercise to improve high school students' anxiety and other psychological problems. Besides, physical activity could relieve anxiety through sleep quality, but causality cannot be inferred when using only a cross-sectional study design.
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