The Relationship Between Physical Activity and Interpersonal Distress Among High School Students: A Moderated Mediation Model

This study aims to explore the relationship between physical activity and interpersonal distress among high school students and its mechanism of action. Based on triadic reciprocal determinism, social cognitive theory, and the protective factor–protective factor Model, a cross-sectional study was conducted on 2072 high school students using the International Physical Activity Questionnaire Short Version (IPAQ-S), the Regulatory Emotional Self-Efficacy Scale, the Adolescent Psychological Resilience Scale, and the Interpersonal Relationship Comprehensive Diagnosis Scale. The results showed that (1) physical activity has a significant adverse predictive effect on interpersonal distress among high school students. (2) Physical activity can not only directly predict interpersonal distress among high school students, but also indirectly predict interpersonal distress through the mediating effect of regulatory emotional self-efficacy. (3) Psychological resilience plays a moderating role in the relationship between emotional regulation self-efficacy, and interpersonal distress. For high school students with low psychological resilience, emotional regulation self-efficacy has a more significant predictive effect on interpersonal distress; however, for high school students with high psychological resilience, the moderating effect is not significant.