Observational Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2023. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Psychiatry. Oct 19, 2023; 13(10): 784-792
Published online Oct 19, 2023. doi: 10.5498/wjp.v13.i10.784
Correlation and pathways of behavioral activation systems mediating physical activity level and depressive symptoms among college students
Jiang-Hua Zhu, Shu-Fan Li, Peng Wang, Xin Xin, Qun Zhao, Si-Cheng Chen, Xing Wang
Jiang-Hua Zhu, Qun Zhao, Department of Physical Education, Donghua University, Shanghai 201620, China
Shu-Fan Li, Peng Wang, Xin Xin, Si-Cheng Chen, Xing Wang, School of Physical Education, Shanghai University of Sport, Shanghai 200438, China
Author contributions: Zhu JH wrote the original manuscript and collected the data; Li SF collected and analyzed the data; Wang P wrote part of the manuscript; Xin X collected the data; Zhao Q curated the data; Chen SC curated the data; Wang X reviewed and edited.
Supported by Shanghai Key Lab of Human Performance (Shanghai University of sport), No. 11DZ2261100.
Institutional review board statement: This study was approved by the ethical committee of Shanghai University of Sport (102772021RT007), and all procedures were performed according to the relevant guidelines and regulations.
Informed consent statement: All study participants or their legal guardian provided informed written consent about personal and medical data collection prior to study enrolment.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare no conflicts of interest.
Data sharing statement: No additional data is available.
STROBE statement: The authors have read the STROBE Statement—checklist of items, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the STROBE Statement—checklist of items.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Xing Wang, PhD, Professor, School of Physical Education, Shanghai University of Sport, No. 399 Changhai Road, Yangpu District, Shanghai 200438, China. wangxing1933@sus.edu.cn
Received: June 5, 2023
Peer-review started: June 5, 2023
First decision: July 4, 2023
Revised: July 15, 2023
Accepted: August 7, 2023
Article in press: August 7, 2023
Published online: October 19, 2023
Processing time: 128 Days and 17.8 Hours
Abstract
BACKGROUND

Depression is a common mental disorder among college students. The main symptoms include being persistent low mood, sad emotional experiences, lack of pleasure, listlessness, and impaired cognitive function accompanied by tendencies of self-harm and suicide.

AIM

To clarify the pathways and effects of the behavioral activation system between physical activity and depressive symptoms in college students with depressive symptoms.

METHODS

This cross-sectional research screened 3047 college students. Of these, 472 had depressive symptoms, with a depression detection rate of 15.49%. Furthermore, 442 college students with depressive symptoms were analyzed. A one-way analysis of variance and Pearson’s correlation, linear regression, and structural equation modeling analyses were used to explore the correlations and pathways of the interactions between the variables.

RESULTS

Depressive symptoms were significantly negatively correlated with physical activity (r = -0.175, P < 0.001), the behavioral activation system (r = -0.197, P < 0.001), and drive (r = -0.113, P = 0.017). Furthermore, it was negatively correlated with fun-seeking (FS) (r = -0.055, P = 0.251); however, it was not significant. Physical activity was significantly positively correlated with reward responsiveness (RR) (r = 0.141, P = 0.003) and drive (r = 0.124, P = 0.009) and not significantly positively correlated with FS (r = 0.090, P = 0.058). The mediating effect of RR between physical activity and depressive symptoms was significant [B = -0.025, 95% confidence interval (95%CI): -0.051 to -0.008, P = 0.001]. The direct and total effects of physical activity on depressive symptoms and were significant (B = -0.150, 95%CI: -0.233 to -0.073, P < 0.001; B = -0.175, 95%CI: -0.260 to -0.099, P < 0.001), respectively.

CONCLUSION

As physical activity levels increased, depression scores among college students decreased. The mediating effect of RR between physical activity and depressive symptoms was significant. Therefore, colleges and universities should encourage college students with depression to increase their physical activity and improve their behavioral activation system. Particular attention should be paid to RR, which may reduce the prevalence of depressive symptoms.

Keywords: College students; Physical activity; Depressive symptoms; Behavioral activation system; Mediating role

Core Tip: This study explored the specificity of the behavioral activation system for physical activity and reward motivation in college students with different depressive symptom scores. Furthermore, the inter-relationships among the three variables were examined via a cross-sectional research design. Pathways of the behavioral activation system that mediated the effect of physical activity level on depressive symptoms in college students with depressive symptoms were clarified.