Luan Xi, Liu Ji, Luo Xin
Faculty of Education, Shaanxi Normal University, Xi'an, China.
Front Psychol. 2022 Mar 2;13:764842. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.764842. eCollection 2022.
Adolescents' engagement in daily physical activity brings multiple benefits, including reduction in obesity, improvement of mental health, and enhancement of cognitive function (CF). While prior studies have examined the link between physical activity and cognitive function, little is known regarding the extent to which this relationship is shaped by health and wellbeing factors. This study examines how subjective wellbeing (SWB) and general health (GH) mediate the relationship between adolescents' physical activity and cognitive function.
This study estimates a parallel structural equation model using the Program for International Student Assessment 2018 dataset. Specifically, a total of 63,228 15-year-old subjects in nine countries/economies satisfied the study inclusion criteria, including in Bulgaria, Georgia, Hong Kong, Ireland, Mexico, Panama, Serbia, Spain, and United Arab Emirates. Frequency of moderate physical activity (MPA, ≥3.0 Metabolic Equivalent Task) was reported weekly; SWB and GH were assessed using an internationally validated multi-item standardized questionnaire. SWB was measured by students' self-evaluated satisfaction with their health, life, and schooling. GH was measured by students' physical health and mental health status. Cognitive function (CF) was modeled as a latent function consisting of plausible values derived using item response theory on reading, mathematics, and science achievement tests.
Findings indicated that increase in weekly MPA was positively associated with higher levels of SWB ( < .001), GH ( < .001), and CF ( < .001) among the study subjects. Parallel mediation analyses revealed that more frequent weekly MPA had relatively large direct effects ( < .001) on CF, and indirect effects channeling through improvements in SWB and GH were non-trivial ( < .001). Heterogeneity results showed that boosts to CF, associated with MPA, were larger for mathematics and science than for reading ( < .001).
This study used a large-scale international dataset to show that the positive relationship observed between MPA and CF among adolescents was robust, and that SWB and GH were two critical mediators through which physical activity positively bolster CF.
青少年参与日常体育活动有诸多益处，包括降低肥胖率、改善心理健康以及增强认知功能（CF）。虽然先前的研究探讨了体育活动与认知功能之间的联系，但对于这种关系在多大程度上受到健康和幸福因素的影响却知之甚少。本研究考察主观幸福感（SWB）和总体健康状况（GH）如何介导青少年体育活动与认知功能之间的关系。
本研究使用2018年国际学生评估项目数据集估计了一个平行结构方程模型。具体而言，保加利亚、格鲁吉亚、中国香港、爱尔兰、墨西哥、巴拿马、塞尔维亚、西班牙和阿拉伯联合酋长国这九个国家/经济体的总共63228名15岁受试者符合研究纳入标准。每周报告中等强度体育活动（MPA，≥3.0代谢当量任务）的频率；使用经过国际验证的多项目标准化问卷对SWB和GH进行评估。SWB通过学生对其健康、生活和学业的自我评估满意度来衡量。GH通过学生的身体健康和心理健康状况来衡量。认知功能（CF）被建模为一个潜在函数，由基于阅读、数学和科学成就测试使用项目反应理论得出的合理值组成。
研究结果表明，在研究对象中，每周MPA的增加与更高水平的SWB（<0.001）、GH（<0.001）和CF（<0.001）呈正相关。平行中介分析显示，每周更频繁的MPA对CF有相对较大的直接影响（<0.001），通过SWB和GH改善产生的间接影响也很显著（<0.001）。异质性结果表明，与MPA相关的CF提升，在数学和科学方面比阅读方面更大（<0.001）。
本研究使用大规模国际数据集表明，青少年中观察到的MPA与CF之间的正相关关系是稳健的，并且SWB和GH是体育活动积极增强CF的两个关键中介因素。
