Observational Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2023. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Psychiatry. Dec 19, 2023; 13(12): 1121-1132
Published online Dec 19, 2023. doi: 10.5498/wjp.v13.i12.1121
Influence of physical education on anxiety, depression, and self-esteem among college students
Hai-Yan Fu, Jing Wang, Jia-Xi Hu
Hai-Yan Fu, Jing Wang, Jia-Xi Hu, School of Physical Education, Guangzhou Sport University, Guangzhou 510500, Guangdong Province, China
Author contributions: Fu HY designed and conducted the research, and authored the paper; Wang J designed the research and supervised the report; Hu JX designed the research and contributed to the analysis.
Institutional review board statement: The study procedures were approved by the Ethics Committee of the School of Physical Education, Guangzhou Sport University (2023LCLL-23).
Informed consent statement: Written informed consent was obtained from all participants.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.
Data sharing statement: The raw data supporting the conclusion of this article can be obtained from the corresponding author.
STROBE statement: The authors have read the STROBE Statement—a checklist of items, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the STROBE Statement— a checklist of items.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Hai-Yan Fu, PhD, Lecturer, School of Physical Education, Guangzhou Sport University, No. 1268 Guangzhou Avenue Central, Tianhe District, Guangzhou 510500, Guangdong Province, China. missfhy@163.com
Received: September 19, 2023
Peer-review started: September 19, 2023
First decision: October 8, 2023
Revised: October 20, 2023
Accepted: November 29, 2023
Article in press: November 29, 2023
Published online: December 19, 2023
Abstract
BACKGROUND

Physical education is pivotal in our country’s education reform. Urban schools have notably enhanced the intensity of physical education in recent years. However, the effects of physical education on students' anxiety, depression, and self-esteem levels, as well as their interrelations, remain unexplored.

AIM

To analyze the influence of physical education on students’ anxiety, depression, and self-esteem.

METHODS

This study employed a cross-sectional design. A stratified cluster sampling method was used to select 478 first-year university students. Self-administered questionnaires were used to investigate the physical education status and basic information of college students. We used the Physical Activity Rank Scale-3 (PARS-3), Self-Rating Anxiety Scale (SAS), Self-Rating Depression Scale (SDS), and Self-Esteem Scale (SES) to assess the level of exercise, anxiety, depression, and self-esteem. Multiple Logistic regression was used to analyze the factors influencing anxiety, depression, and low self-esteem. The receiver operating characteristic curve and area under the curve (AUC) were used to evaluate the predictive ability of PARS-3 scores for anxiety, depression, and low self-esteem. Spearman’s correlation was used to analyze the correlations among the PARS-3, SAS, SDS, and SES.

RESULTS

Compared with the domestic norms, SAS and SDS scores were higher, and SES scores were lower (P < 0.05). Among the participants, 210 (43.93%) had PARS-3 scores below 20, 94 (19.67%) had scores of 20-42, and 174 (36.40%) had scores above 42. After adjusting for daily sleep time, gender, being an only child, major, father’s educational background, mother’s educational background, and family residence, PARS-3 scores were independent influencing factors for anxiety, depression, and low self-esteem (P < 0.05). The AUC of PARS-3 scores predicting anxiety, depression, and low self-esteem were 0.805 (0.760-0.849), 0.799 (0.755-0.843), and 0.831 (0.788-0.874), respectively. The sensitivities were 0.799, 0.801, and 0.748, and the specificities were 0.743, 0.716, and 0.814, respectively. PARS-3 was negatively correlated with SAS and SDS scores (r = -0.566, -0.621, both P < 0.001) and positively correlated with SES scores (r = -0.621, P < 0.001). SES scores were negatively correlated with SAS and SDS scores (r = -0.508, r = -0.518, both P < 0.001).

CONCLUSION

The amount of physical activity is negatively correlated with anxiety and depression degree and positively correlated with self-esteem degree.

Keywords: Physical education, Student, Anxiety, Depression, Self-esteem, Influence

Core Tip: This study establishes a negative correlation between physical activity levels and the degree of anxiety and depression while demonstrating a positive correlation with self-esteem. This provides substantial evidence for the impact of physical education on anxiety, depression, and self-esteem of college students.