Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2021 Jul 7;18(14):7257.
doi: 10.3390/ijerph18147257.

Academic Stress, Physical Activity, Sleep, and Mental Health among Chinese Adolescents

Xihe Zhu  1 , Justin A Haegele  1 , Huarong Liu  2 , Fangliang Yu  3
Affiliations

Academic Stress, Physical Activity, Sleep, and Mental Health among Chinese Adolescents

Xihe Zhu et al. Int J Environ Res Public Health. .

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine the impacts of academic stress on physical activity and sleep, and subsequently their impacts on anxiety and depression.

Methods: This cross-sectional study collected data from a convenience sample of 1533 adolescents in an eastern province in China. Surveys were used to collect data on academic stress, anxiety, depression, sleep, physical activity, and demographics. Descriptive statistics, correlation analysis, and path analysis were used to analyze data.

Results: The participants reported about 6.77 ± 0.89 h of sleep per day and 1.62 ± 1.79 days of 60 min of physical activity each week. Academic stress was positively correlated with anxiety and depression, which were negatively correlated with physical activity and sleep. The path analysis showed that academic stress directly predicted anxiety (β = 0.54) and depression (β = 0.55), and hours of sleep (β = 0.024) and the number of days of 60 min physical activity (β = 0.014) mediated the relation.

Conclusion: The results largely supported our hypotheses and supported the need to lessen academic stress experienced by Chinese adolescents, in effort to enhance mental health indices directly, and by allowing for engagement in health-related behaviors such as physical activity and sleep.

Keywords: academic burden; anxiety; depression; mediation; prevalence; youth.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Relations between academic stress, physical activity, sleep, and mental health (dotted lines are not statistically significant, p > 0.05).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Kessler R.C., Berglund P., Demler O., Jin R., Merikangas K.R., Walters E.E. Lifetime Prevalence and Age-of-Onset Distributions of DSM-IV Disorders in the National Comorbidity Survey Replication. Arch. Gen. Psychiatry. 2005;62:593–602. doi: 10.1001/archpsyc.62.6.593. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Wang T., Li M., Xu S., Liu B., Wu T., Lu F., Xie J., Peng L., Wang J. Relations between trait anxiety and depression: A mediated moderation model. J. Affect. Disord. 2019;244:217–222. doi: 10.1016/j.jad.2018.09.074. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Tang X., Tang S., Ren Z., Wong D.F.K. Prevalence of depressive symptoms among adolescents in secondary school in mainland China: A systematic review and meta-analysis. J. Affect. Disord. 2019;245:498–507. doi: 10.1016/j.jad.2018.11.043. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Hesketh T., Ding Q.J. Anxiety and Depression in Adolescents in Urban and Rural China. Psychol. Rep. 2005;96:435–444. doi: 10.2466/pr0.96.2.435-444. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Bitsko R.H., Holbrook J.R., Ghandour R.M., Blumberg S.J., Visser S.N., Perou R., Walkup J.T. Epidemiology and Impact of Health Care Provider–Diagnosed Anxiety and Depression Among US Children. J. Dev. Behav. Pediatr. 2018;39:395–403. doi: 10.1097/DBP.0000000000000571. - DOI - PMC - PubMed