ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Sport Psychology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1632130
This article is part of the Research TopicPhysical Education for Holistic Educational DevelopmentView all 11 articles
How Physical Activity Enhances Academic Engagement in Middle School: A Serial Mediation Model of Interpersonal Relationships and Academic Support
Provisionally accepted
- 1School of Sports Training, Chengdu Sport University, Chengdu, China
- 2School of Football Sports, Chengdu Sport University, Chengdu, China
- 3School of Physical Education, Chengdu Sport University, Chengdu, China
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Academic engagement is a critical aspect of adolescent development. Understanding the mechanism of academic engagement will help to take effective measures to improve the academic engagement of middle school students. This study used a serial mediation model to delve into the complex association among physical activity, interpersonal relationships, academic support, and academic engagement in middle school students. A sample of 746 participants in middle school (51.1% female) completed validated measurement tools for each variable. Results showed that grade was negatively correlated with physical activity and academic engagement, yet positively associated with interpersonal relationships, and significant positive correlations among the four variables. In contrast, gender and only-child status had weak correlations with other measured variables. Findings from regression analyses further underscored that physical activity positively directly predicted academic engagement. Notably, mediation analyses showed that both interpersonal relationships and academic support mediated the separate relationship between physical activity and academic engagement, and they also supported the hypothesized serial mediation effect. The final serial mediation model effectively explained a substantial 31.8% portion of the variance in academic engagement. These findings comprehensively illustrate the complex interactions between physical activity and academic engagement, deepening our understanding of the determinants of the relationship between the two variables among middle school students. The study provides valuable empirical evidence for designing targeted interventions aimed at enhancing adolescents' academic engagement through improved physical activity, interpersonal relationships, and academic support.
Keywords: Academic engagement, physical activity, interpersonal relationships, academic support, serial mediating model
Received: 20 May 2025; Accepted: 28 Jul 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Zhang, Liu, Zhang and Hu. 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: Yongfeng Liu, School of Sports Training, Chengdu Sport University, Chengdu, China
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