Effects of physical exercise on mindfulness level among female college students: the mediating effect of mobile phone addiction

Background This study explores the impact of physical exercise on female college students’ trait mindfulness levels and examines the mediating role of mobile phone addiction in this relationship. Methods The empirical study employs stratified random cluster sampling. The Physical Activity Rating Scale-3 (PARS-3), Mindful Awareness Attention Scale (MAAS), and Mobile Phone Addiction Tendency Scale (MPATS) were used to conduct a questionnaire survey. The participants of the study were 554 female college students from 5 universities in Fujian Province, China. Results The scores for physical exercise, trait mindfulness, and mobile phone addiction among female college students were 16.04 ± 15.92, 53.79 ± 11.45, and 47.93 ± 9.76, respectively. Physical exercise and trait mindfulness had a significant positive correlation (r = 0.20, p < 0.01), while physical exercise and mobile phone addiction had a significant negative correlation (r = −0.17, p < 0.01). Also, a significant negative correlation was found between mobile phone addiction and trait mindfulness (r = −0.45, p < 0.01). The structural equation model analysis showed that the direct effect of physical exercise on trait mindfulness was 0.071 ( p < 0.01), and mobile phone addiction played a significant indirect mediating role in it, with the indirect effect being 0.044, accounting for 35.77% of the total effect. Conclusion The findings indicate that physical exercise can enhance female college students’ trait mindfulness directly and indirectly by reducing mobile phone addiction. This implies the importance of promoting physical exercise and managing mobile phone use in universities, while combining mindfulness training with physical exercise may greatly benefit their comprehensive mental development. The cross-sectional design of this study can only reflect the co-occurrence of variables and cannot determine the causal direction. Using self-report scales, while accounting for potential social expectation biases and recall biases, future studies can further validate the conclusions through longitudinal tracking and multi-dimensional assessment.