A study on the cross-lagged relationships between adolescents' sport participation and self-control ability and mental health.

Adolescent mental health has garnered increasing attention worldwide, necessitating greater understanding of its dynamic predictors over time. While sport participation is widely recognized for its psychological benefits, the longitudinal mechanisms through which it relates to self-control ability and mental health remain underexplored. This study aimed to examine the temporal associations among sport participation, self-control ability, and mental health in adolescents across a one-year period. A three-wave longitudinal survey was conducted among 1,306 Chinese adolescents, with data collected at three time points within a single academic year. Cross-lagged panel modeling revealed that sport participation at Time 1 significantly predicted self-control ability (β = 0.18) and mental health (β = 0.25) at Time 2, and sport participation at Time 2 predicted self-control ability (β = 0.12) and mental health (β = 0.08) at Time 3. Self-control ability at Time 1 predicted mental health at Time 2 (β = 0.30), and self-control at Time 2 predicted mental health at Time 3 (β = 0.17). A reciprocal direction of influence was also identified: mental health at Time 1 predicted self-control ability at Time 2 (β = 0.23), and mental health at Time 2 predicted self-control ability at Time 3 (β = 0.23). Multi-group structural analyses further demonstrated that the identified cross-lagged associations were invariant across gender, school stage, residence type, and sports type, indicating structural stability of the model across diverse subgroups. These findings support a mutually reinforcing relationship between sport participation, self-regulatory development, and psychological functioning in adolescence, with implications for theory-based school health promotion.