Skip to main content

ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Psychiatry
Sec. Public Mental Health
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2024.1501996
This article is part of the Research Topic The Intersection of Psychology, Healthy Behaviors, and its Outcomes View all 44 articles

The Relationship Between Physical Exercise and Depressive Symptoms in College Students: The Mediating Role of Rumination

Provisionally accepted
Bei Zhu Bei Zhu 1*Qing Liu Qing Liu 2*shuqi jia shuqi jia 2*Xing WANG Xing WANG 2Qin Man Qin Man 3*
  • 1 East China Normal University, Shanghai, Shanghai Municipality, China
  • 2 Shanghai University of Sport, Shanghai, China
  • 3 Shanghai Lixin University of Accounting and Finance, Shanghai, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    This study aims to explore the correlation between physical exercise, rumination, and depressive symptoms in college students, as well as to investigate the potential pathways through which physical exercise may impact depressive symptoms. This exploration offers valuable insights for the development of clinical exercise interventions.Methods: A cross-sectional study design was employed, with 2,902 participants recruited via convenience sampling. Structural equation modeling was utilized to explore the relationship between physical exercise and depressive symptoms in college students. Results: 1) Statistically significant differences were observed between depressed and non-depressed college students in terms of rumination, symptom rumination, reflective pondering, and compulsive meditation (all P < 0.05); 2) Physical exercise was found to negatively predict symptom rumination (B=-0.083, P<0.001), compulsive thinking (B=0.034, P>0.05), reflective pondering (B=-0.038, P<0.01), and BDI-II scores (B=-0.103, P<0.001). Symptom rumination positively predicted BDI-II scores (B=0.648, P<0.001), while compulsive thinking and reflective pondering were found to predict BDI-II scores positively (B=0.028, P>0.05) and negatively (B=-0.041, P>0.05), respectively. 3) Physical exercise exerted a direct effect of 59.09% on BDI-II scores (B: -0.065, 95% CI -0.104, -0.028), indicating that higher levels of physical exercise were associated with lower BDI-II scores. The coefficients for duration, intensity, and frequency were statistically significant (all P < 0.05), with intensity and frequency exhibiting higher path coefficients. Rumination, as a latent variable, mediated 40.91% of the indirect effect (B: -0.045, 95% CI -0.077, -0.015), with symptom rumination emerging as a statistically significant pathway (P < 0.05). Conclusion: Rumination may mediate the relationship between physical exercise and depressive symptoms, with varying mediating effects across different dimensions of rumination. The intensity and duration of physical exercise exert a stronger influence.

    Keywords: depressive symptoms, physical exercise, rumination, Mediating effect, relationship

    Received: 08 Oct 2024; Accepted: 12 Nov 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Zhu, Liu, jia, WANG and Man. 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:
    Bei Zhu, East China Normal University, Shanghai, 200062, Shanghai Municipality, China
    Qing Liu, Shanghai University of Sport, Shanghai, China
    shuqi jia, Shanghai University of Sport, Shanghai, China
    Qin Man, Shanghai Lixin University of Accounting and Finance, Shanghai, 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.