Longitudinal association between physical activity and creative self-efficacy in adolescents: Mediating role of psychological resilience

Creative self-efficacy (CSE), an individual’s belief in their ability to produce creative outcomes, is fundamental to adolescents’ creative development. Embodied cognition theory and current empirical evidence link physical activity and creativity. Yet, the longitudinal association between physical activity and CSE remains poorly understood. This study investigated the longitudinal association between physical activity and CSE in adolescents, with a particular focus on the mediating role of psychological resilience. A total of 751 Chinese adolescents (48.20 % boys, M_age=16.27) completed self-report questionnaires on physical activity, psychological resilience, and creative self-efficacy at three time points over 12 months. Using both cross-lagged panel modeling (CLPM) and random intercept cross-lagged panel modeling (RI-CLPM), we differentiated between-person from within-person effects. Results showed that physical activity was significantly associated with CSE over time. Notably, at the within-person level, psychological resilience was a significant mediator, with sensitivity analyses demonstrating the relative robustness of the mediation effect. These findings not only advance embodied cognition and stress adaptation theories by illuminating a time dynamic mechanism among physical activity, psychological resilience, and creative self-beliefs, but also highlight the potential practical implications of promoting physical activity and resilience-building programs to foster adolescents’ creative self-beliefs. Finally, the limitations and future directions of this study are discussed.