Modeling Physical Activity, Mental Health, and Prosocial Behavior in School-Aged Children: A Gender Perspective

Damián Iglesias Gallego, Benito León-del-Barco, Santiago Mendo-Lázaro, Marta Leyton-Román and Jerónimo J. González-Bernal
Additional contact information
Damián Iglesias Gallego: Physical Education & Exercise Lab, Teacher Training College, University of Extremadura, 10003 Cáceres, Spain
Benito León-del-Barco: Department of Psychology, Teacher Training College, University of Extremadura, 10003 Cáceres, Spain
Santiago Mendo-Lázaro: Department of Psychology, Teacher Training College, University of Extremadura, 10003 Cáceres, Spain
Marta Leyton-Román: Sports Studies Center, Rey Juan Carlos University, 28032 Madrid, Spain
Jerónimo J. González-Bernal: Department of Psychology, University of Burgos, 09001 Burgos, Spain

Sustainability, 2020, vol. 12, issue 11, 1-8

Abstract: The purpose of this study was to examine the link between physical activity (PA) and mental health (MH) in children in terms of gender. A total of 750 subjects (52.9% boys, M age = 10.88; SD = 0.75) reported the level of PA they were performing by means of a self-report questionnaire, and they also completed the Spanish version of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ). Results revealed statistically significant differences in regard to gender in the physical activity index (PAI), the externalizing of problems, and prosocial behavior. Boys presented high scores on the PAI and externalizing problems. Girls obtained higher values on the prosocial scale. In the prediction analysis, the PAI revealed a statistically significant relationship in linear models for externalizing and internalizing problems, as well as in both the linear and quadratic models in the prosocial scale for the case of male gender. For girls, the PAI revealed a statistically significant relationship in the quadratic model for internalizing problems and in both the linear and quadratic models for the prosocial scale. These findings are discussed in terms of previous research literature on PA and MH in children. Some important educational implications for teaching and learning physical education are suggested.

Keywords: physical activity; mental health; prosocial behavior; school; children (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/11/4646/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/11/4646/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:12:y:2020:i:11:p:4646-:d:368103

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().