Physical activity and social anxiety symptoms among Chinese college students: a serial mediation model of psychological resilience and sleep problems.

Background: Social anxiety symptoms are common and harmful psychological illness in college students. Although some studies have illustrated that physical activity could reduce social anxiety symptoms, the specific mechanism is still unclear. Based on theoretical studies on resilience and sleep, this study constructed a serial mediation model to explore whether they mediate between physical activity and social anxiety symptoms among college students.

Methods: This study surveyed 9,530 college students from three colleges in China to explore the mediating effect of physical activity and sleep problems between physical activity and social anxiety symptoms. Participants were investigated with the International Physical Activity Questionnaire, Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale, Sleep-related problems, and the Social Interaction Anxiety Scale and the Social Phobia Scale. Correlations between variables were analysed using Pearson correlation analysis and mediation analyses were performed using SPSS PROCESS macro 3.3 software.

Result: The study found that physical activity was negatively associated with social anxiety symptoms and sleep problems, but positively with psychological resilience. After controlling for sociodemographic variables, physical activity can not only indirectly alleviate social anxiety symptoms through the separate mediation of psychological resilience and sleep problems, but also through the serial mediation of psychological resilience and sleep problems.

Conclusion: These results suggest that improving physical activity levels could reduce social anxiety scores by increasing psychological resilience and sleep quality. This is of great reference significance for the prevention and intervention of college students' mental health.