The effects of physical exercise on adolescents' antisocial behavior: the chain-mediated effects of good peer relationships and subjective wellbeing.

OBJECTIVE

This study examines the impact of physical exercise on adolescents' antisocial behaviour, analysing the independent and sequential mediating roles of positive peer relationships and subjective wellbeing to elucidate the underlying mechanisms.

METHODS

Using cross-sectional data from 7,272 adolescents, we conducted correlation analysis, OLS regression, and bootstrap-based mediation analysis (PROCESS Macro, Model 6) with 5,000 resamples to examine (1) the direct effect of physical exercise on antisocial behavior and (2) the independent and sequential mediation effects of positive peer relationships and subjective well-being. Stepwise regression and serial mediation modeling (physical exercise → peer relationships → subjective well-being → antisocial behavior) were applied to verify hypotheses, with bias-corrected 95% confidence intervals used to determine significance. All analyses were performed in SPSS 21.0.

RESULTS

Physical exercise showed a significant negative correlation with antisocial behaviour indicating its preventive effect. Positive peer relationships (mediating effect: 30.85%) and subjective wellbeing (14.89%) served as independent mediators, while also forming a sequential pathway: "physical exercise → peer relationships → subjective wellbeing → antisocial behaviour" (16.49%). The inhibitory effect was more pronounced among boys, only-children, boarding students, those with harmonious parental relationships, state-school attendees, rural students, and those with access to school sports facilities.

CONCLUSIONS

Physical exercise directly reduces antisocial behaviour while indirectly mitigating it through enhanced peer relationships and subjective wellbeing. These findings provide a theoretical basis for sports-based behavioural interventions, highlighting the need to integrate social interaction and emotional management strategies.