Evidence map›Paper›PMID 40692846›Full record

ArticleFrontiers in sports and active living2025

Hierarchical clustering of the pre-exam anxiety levels in physically inactive and active adolescent students from 56 countries: an observational study using PISA program data.

Samuel Encarnação, José Eduardo Teixeira, Pedro Forte, Luciano Bernardes Leite, Andrew Sortwell, Luís Branquinho, Ricardo Ferraz, Pedro Afonso, Paula Vaz, António Miguel Monteiro

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Article in Frontiers in sports and active living, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.

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1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

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2 · The registry

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3 · Its place in the literature

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4 · The record

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5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

10 authors.

Samuel EncarnaçãoDepartment of Sports Sciences and Physical Education, Instituto Politécnico de Bragança, Bragança, Portugal.
José Eduardo TeixeiraResearch Centre for Active Living and Wellbeing (Livewell), Instituto Politécnico de Bragança, Bragança, Portugal.
Pedro ForteResearch Centre for Active Living and Wellbeing (Livewell), Instituto Politécnico de Bragança, Bragança, Portugal.
Luciano Bernardes LeiteDepartment of Sports Sciences, Instituto Politécnico de Bragança, Bragança, Portugal.
Andrew SortwellResearch Center in Sports Sciences, Health Sciences and Human Development (CIDESD), Covilhã, Portugal.
Luís BranquinhoResearch Center in Sports Sciences, Health Sciences and Human Development (CIDESD), Covilhã, Portugal.
Ricardo FerrazResearch Center in Sports Sciences, Health Sciences and Human Development (CIDESD), Covilhã, Portugal.
Pedro AfonsoBiosciences Higher School of Elvas, Polytechnic Institute of Portalegre, Portalegre, Portugal.
Paula VazDepartment of Sports Sciences and Physical Education, Instituto Politécnico de Bragança, Bragança, Portugal.
António Miguel MonteiroResearch Centre for Active Living and Wellbeing (Livewell), Instituto Politécnico de Bragança, Bragança, Portugal.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Introduction: The relationship between physical activity and anxiety among students has been extensively studied, with research highlighting the protective effects of physical activity on mental well-being. Methods: This article synthesizes existing literature on the topic and presents a novel analysis of pre-exam anxiety rates among physically inactive high school students from 56 countries. Using data from the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2018, a hierarchical clustering method was applied to identify four clusters based on stratified country groups by the students' pre-exam anxiety levels. Results: The results indicated five clusters for low physically active students (three with higher anxiety rates and two with lower levels of the condition) and four clusters for the low physically active individuals (two for higher anxiety rates and two for lower levels). Furthermore, the hierarchical model worked with good precision in the clustering task. In conclusion, considering the low physically active students, Brazil (82%) and the Dominican Republic (81%) recorded the highest pre-exam anxiety levels, while the Czech Republic (35%) had the lowest. Among the physically active students, Malaysia (82%), Brazil (81%), and Costa Rica (81%) recorded the highest anxiety levels, whereas again, the Czech Republic (35%) had the lowest. Discussion: These findings emphasize that although physical activity generally relates to reduced anxiety, this association varies across cultural and educational contexts.

Indexed as

anxiousnesshealthy lifestylesocial protectionteensunsupervised machine learning

Identifiers

PMID40692846
PMCPMC12277299

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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.