Influence of physical exercise on mental health and anxiety of adolescents

Abstract

The mental health is an important aspect of the healthy growth of adolescents. Therefore, this paper aims to disclose how physical exercise affects the mental health and anxiety of adolescents. A total of600 students were selected randomly from junior high schools, senior high schools and universities in Changchun, China, and subjected to a questionnaire survey on the physical exercise and mental health of adolescents. With the aid of Symptom Checklist 90 (SCL-90), the author explored the influence of physical exercise on the mental health and anxiety of adolescents in four aspects: participation in physical exercise, amount of physical exercises, gender difference, and different types of sports. The results show that adolescent males and females have different motivations to participate in physical exercise; most adolescents that participate in physical exercise are on the medium level of participation; the adolescents generally have poor mental health and great anxiety; adolescent males have better mental health than their female counterparts; a suitable amount of physical exercise can promote the mental health and alleviate the anxiety among adolescents; the participation in different types of sports is helpful to the mental health of adolescents. The research findings provide a reference for adolescent mental health education from the perspective of physical exercise.