Direct and Indirect Associations Between Mental Health and Motivational Indicators with Physical Activity Among Lithuanian Adolescents

Mieziene, Brigita; Venckunas, Tomas; Emeljanovas, Arunas; Trinkuniene, Laima; Zaicenkoviene, Kristina; Vizbaraite, Daiva

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1492548

ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Psychol.

Sec. Health Psychology

Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1492548

This article is part of the Research Topic Integrating Health Psychology in Practice: Enhancing Well-being and Improving Health Outcomes Across Diverse Contexts View all 11 articles

Direct and Indirect Associations Between Mental Health and Motivational Indicators with Physical Activity Among Lithuanian Adolescents

Provisionally accepted

Brigita Mieziene ^*

Tomas Venckunas

Arunas Emeljanovas

Laima Trinkuniene

Kristina Zaicenkoviene

Daiva Vizbaraite

Lithuanian Sports University, Kaunas, Lithuania

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

Background. Considering the low engagement of contemporary adolescents in physical activity (PA), apparently, PA still has a low priority for adolescents, who are the only ones making decisions and performing behavior. So, analysis of more proximal factors that lay on the personal and interpersonal levels as well as psychological mechanisms forming PA behavior is important.Methods. The population-based cross-sectional study included 4924 5 th to 12 th -grade school students.Among them, 50.9% were girls. The mean age of study participants varied from 11 to 19 years (mean 14.08 (2.21)). Moderate-to-vigorous physical activity was measured by four items out of the IPAQ-SF questionnaire (Craig et al., 2003). Psychological well-being was assessed using The World Health Organization Five Well-Being Index (WHO-5) 5-item questionnaire (Topp et al., 2015). Psychological distress has been assessed by Kessler's six-item scale (Kessler et al., 2003). Social support in terms of family and friends social support has been assessed by a 13-item subscale of Sallis' Support for Exercise Survey (Sallis et al., 1987). Body mass index (BMI) was calculated by dividing body mass (kg) by height-squared (m2).Results. Higher motivation for MVPA was predicted by higher family (β=.653) but not friends' support and both mental health indicatorshigher psychological well-being (β=.049) and lower psychological distress (β=-.078) were linked to higher motivation for physical activity, regardless the covariates.Higher motivation (β=.137), greater psychological well-being (β=.580) with the greatest magnitude, and lower psychological distress (β=-.293) contributed to the greater MVPA.Family but not friends' support for physical activity, greater psychological well-being, and lower psychological distress have direct and indirect effects on greater moderate-to-vigorous physical activity in adolescents.

Keywords: adolescents, Moderate-to-vigorous physical activity, social support, psychological well-being, psychological distress

Received: 07 Sep 2024; Accepted: 14 Mar 2025.

Copyright: © 2025 Mieziene, Venckunas, Emeljanovas, Trinkuniene, Zaicenkoviene and Vizbaraite. 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: Brigita Mieziene, Lithuanian Sports University, Kaunas, Lithuania

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.