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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Psychiatry
Sec. Adolescent and Young Adult Psychiatry
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2024.1509967

Physical Activity and Non-suicidal Self-injurious Behavior in Chinese Adolescents: The Chain Mediating Role of Psychological Capital and Relative Deprivation

Provisionally accepted
Yingzhe Gao Yingzhe Gao 1Changfen Lu Changfen Lu 1*Xiaoqiang Zhang Xiaoqiang Zhang 2Beining Han Beining Han 1Huijuan Hu Huijuan Hu 3
  • 1 Central China Normal University, Wuhan, China
  • 2 Wuhan Sports University, Wuhan, Hubei Province, China
  • 3 Anhui Normal University, Wuhu, Anhui Province, China

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

    Physical activity has been shown to alleviate negative emotions. We investigated whether physical activity is associated with lower non-suicidal self-injurious behavior in adolescents and the mechanisms of this association. 451 secondary school students (44.57% girls; ages 13-19) completed the Physical Activity Rating Scale, Adolescent Non-Suicidal Self-Injurious Behavior Scale, Psychological Capital Scale, and Adolescent Relative Deprivation Scale in their classrooms. This study used SPSS 26.0 for statistical data analysis and the SPSS macro program PROCESS 4.1 to explore the mediation role. Regression-based analyses showed that higher psychological capital and lower relative deprivation individually and sequentially mediated the association between physical activity and lower NSSI. These findings contribute to a deeper understanding of how and why physical activity affects adolescents' non-suicidal self-injurious behaviors. At the same time, the result may provide new insights into prevention and intervention efforts for non-suicidal selfinjurious behaviors in adolescents.

    Keywords: physical activity, Non-suicidal self-injury, Psychological Capital, relative deprivation, adolescents

    Received: 11 Oct 2024; Accepted: 15 Nov 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Gao, Lu, Zhang, Han 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: Changfen Lu, Central China Normal University, Wuhan, China

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