AUTHOR=Xia Qifei , Liu Qi , Qin Guoyou 

TITLE=The mediating role of psychological resilience in the relationship between physical exercise and sense of security among left-behind junior high school students: multi-group comparative analysis of only children and children with siblings

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Psychology

VOLUME=15

YEAR=2024

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1411175

DOI=10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1411175

ISSN=1664-1078

ABSTRACT=<sec id="sec1"><title>Background</title><p>This study aims to explore the mediating role of psychological resilience in the relationship between physical exercise and the sense of security among junior high school students, with a particular focus on variations based on only-child status.</p></sec><sec id="sec2"><title>Methods</title><p>A survey was conducted among 649 left-behind junior high school students in Gansu Province, China, utilizing the Physical Activity Rating Scale-3 (PARS-3), Security Questionnaire (SQ), and Resilience Scale for Chinese Adolescents (RSCA).</p></sec><sec id="sec3"><title>Results</title><p>Among the participants, the mean scores for physical exercise, psychological resilience, and sense of security were 40.78 ± 29.49, 51.14 ± 10.08, and 55.75 ± 14.35, respectively. A significant positive correlation was observed between physical exercise and sense of security (<italic>r</italic> = 0.210, <italic>p</italic> &lt; 0.01), physical exercise and psychological resilience (<italic>r</italic> = 0.164, <italic>p</italic> &lt; 0.01), and psychological resilience and sense of security (<italic>r</italic> = 0.443, <italic>p</italic> &lt; 0.01). Mediation analysis revealed that psychological resilience partially mediates the effect of physical exercise on the sense of security, accounting for 33.9% of the total effect. Multi-group analysis indicated significant differences in this mediating effect between only children and children with siblings, with a stronger predictive role of psychological resilience for the sense of security among non-only children.</p></sec><sec id="sec4"><title>Conclusion</title><p>Participation in physical exercise can promote the improvement of sense of security through the individual power factor of improving the psychological resilience of left-behind junior high school students, and this improvement effect is more significant for non-only children.</p></sec>