ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Sport Psychology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1613727
Physical activity and phubbing behavior in Chinese college students: the mediating role of self-control and the moderating role of gender
Provisionally accepted
- 1Taizhou University, Taizhou, China
- 2Jiangsu Food & Pharmaceutical Science College, Huai'an, China
- 3Nanjing Sport Institute, Nanjing University, Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, China
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
Objective: The prevalent adoption of smartphones has given rise to widespread phubbing behavior among college students, characterized by excessive smartphone use in social settings. However, research investigating behavioral intervention strategies to mitigate phubbing behavior remains notably scarce. In the present study, we examined the mediating mechanism of self-control and the moderating role of gender between physical activity and phubbing behavior in college students. Methods: This study was conducted involving 1,340 college students using the Physical Activity Rating Scale-3, Phubbing Scale, and Self-Control Scale, respectively. Data analysis by using SPSS 27.0, including mediation analysis and moderating analysis. Results: Physical activity had a direct negative influence on phubbing behavior (β = -0.279, 95% CI [-0.331, -0.227]), while self-control acted as a mediator in this indirect relationship (β =-0.123, 95% CI [-0.150, -0.098]). Additionally, female college students' participation in physical activity had a stronger impact on improving self-control and reducing phubbing behavior compared to male students. Conclusion: The current research indicated that physical activity constituted an effective intervention for preventing and reducing phubbing behavior in college students, which could either directly affect college students' phubbing behavior or indirectly through the mediating variable of self-control. Furthermore, gender moderated the effect of physical activity, self-control, and phubbing behavior, with female students' physical activity participation exhibiting stronger predictive effects on enhancing self-control and alleviating phubbing behavior compared with male college students.
Keywords: physical activity, Phubbing behavior, Self-Control, college students, moderated mediation
Received: 17 Apr 2025; Accepted: 02 Jun 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Li, Yin, YI and Zhu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Hao Zhu, Nanjing Sport Institute, Nanjing University, Nanjing, 210093, Jiangsu Province, China
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.