ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Public Health
Sec. Children and Health
This article is part of the Research TopicExploring the cognitive benefits of physical activity in young peopleView all 5 articles
Relationship between parental physical activity and Adolescents' exercise cognition: the mediating role of family activity support
Provisionally accepted
- 1School of Physical Education and Health, East China Normal University, Shanghai, China
- 2Huangshan University, Huangshan, China
- 3Yili Normal University, Gulja, 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
Background: Adolescents' exercise cognition influences their healthy development. While parental physical activity (PA) is linked to Adolescents' exercise cognition, the role of family activity support in this relationship is still unclear. This study aims to examine how family activity support influences the relationship between parental PA and adolescents' exercise cognition. Methods: A 2023 survey conducted across 15 provinces in China ultimately included 12,457 participants. Multiple linear regression examined the links between parental PA, family activity support, and adolescents' exercise cognition, adjusting for potential confounders. A mediation model tested whether family activity support mediated the relationship between parental PA and adolescents' exercise cognition. Subgroup analyses explored heterogeneity across groups. Results: After adjusting for confounding variables, parental PA was positively associated with adolescents' exercise cognition (β = 9.47×10⁻ ², 95% CI: 8×10⁻ ⁴ to 1.1×10⁻ ³; P < 0.001). Family activity support was also positively associated with adolescents' exercise cognition (β = 47.86×10⁻ ², 95% CI: 1.045–1.118; P < 0.001). Family activity support mediated 49.05% of the total association of parental PA on adolescents' exercise cognition, with a mediation effect size of 4.65×10⁻ ², suggesting that higher parental PA was indirectly linked to improved adolescents' exercise cognition through increased family activity support. Conclusion: The study found that both parental PA and family activity support were positively associated with adolescents' exercise cognition., and family activity support mediated the relationship between parental PA and adolescents' exercise cognition.
Keywords: Parental physical activity, Family activity support, adolescents, Exercise cognition, Cross- sectional study
Received: 14 Aug 2025; Accepted: 19 Nov 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Liang, Yu, Li and Li. 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: Fusheng Liang, lfsaixu@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.