ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Public Health
Sec. Public Mental Health
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2025.1683468
This article is part of the Research TopicYouth Mental HealthView all 6 articles
The Impact of Physical Activity and Dietary Behavior on Depression In College Students: A Study on Mediation Effects and Network Analysis
Provisionally accepted
- Jiangxi Normal University, Nanchang, 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
Objectives: This study investigates the relationships between physical activity, dietary behavior, and depressive symptoms among college students, focusing on the mediating role of dietary behavior and interconnections revealed by network analysis. Methods: We utilized convenience sampling to recruit 2,487 college students from five universities in Jiangxi Province, China. Data were collected through an online questionnaire. Physical activity levels were gauged through a brief inquiry, dietary behavior was evaluated using the College Students' Dietary Health Literacy Questionnaire, and depressive symptoms were quantified using a widely recognised scale from the Centre for Epidemiological Studies (CES-D). Descriptive statistical analysis was conducted using SPSS 26.0, mediation analysis using PROCESS version 3.5, and network analysis using the R programming language. Results: A significant negative correlation was found between physical activity and depression (β =- 0.15, P<0.001), with a comparable pattern observed for dietary behavior (β=-0.49, P< 0.001). Dietary behavior served as a partial mediator in linking physical activity to depression, explaining 65% of the overall impact. (β= -0.28, 95% CI = -0.31–0.25). Network analysis results indicated that three nodes, Y6, Y10, and Y15, were centrally positioned within the network. The bridge expected influence showed that physical activity was strongly associated with dietary behavior and depression clusters. Conclusions: The findings highlight significant interconnections between physical activity, dietary behavior, and depressive symptoms. The partial mediating effect of dietary behavior underscores its importance in the relationship between physical activity and depressive symptoms. These results suggest that interventions targeting both physical activity and dietary behavior could positively impact depressive symptoms in college students, offering valuable insights for preventing and managing depression in this population.
Keywords: physical activity, dietary behavior, Depression, college students, Mediation analysis, Network analysis
Received: 15 Aug 2025; Accepted: 26 Sep 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Zhang, Huang, Hu, Yuan and Chen. 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:
Wenying Huang, 18315133143@163.com
Chang Hu, 18046805636@163.com
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.