Physical Exercise and Social Anxiety in College Students: Mediating Role of Mobile Phone Addiction Tendency and Self-control

Abstract Objective: To explore the relationship between physical exercise and social anxiety of college students, and the mediating role of mobile phone addiction tendency and self-control between them. Methods: The physical exercise scale, social anxiety scale, mobile phone addiction tendency scale and self-control scale were used to investigate 1209 college students by stratified cluster random sampling method. Results: (1) Physical exercise is negatively correlated with social anxiety（β=-0.044, p < -1.396, CI[-0.107, 0.018]）. (2) Physical exercise was negatively correlated with mobile phone addiction tendency (β =- 0.240, p < 0.01, CI[-0.300, -0.180]); Mobile phone addiction tendency is positively correlated with social anxiety(β= 0.482, p < 0.01, CI[0.433, 0.531]). (3) Physical exercise is positively correlated with self-control（β = 0.577, p < 0.01, CI[0.529, 0.625]）; Self-control was negatively correlated with social anxiety（β= -0.124, p < 0.01, CI[-0.184, -0.063]）. (4) Mobile phone addiction tendency is negatively correlated with self-control（β= -0.207, p < 0.01, CI[-0.251, -0.162]）. The chain mediation effect between mobile phone addiction tendency and self-control is significant, and the simple mediation effect between mobile phone addiction tendency and self-control is significant. The mediating effect was composed of three paths: physical exercise → mobile phone addiction tendency → social anxiety (effect size -0.116), physical exercise → self-control → social anxiety (effect size -0.071), physical exercise → mobile phone addiction tendency → self-control → social anxiety (effect size -0.006). Conclusion: (1) Physical exercise is negatively correlated with college students' social anxiety.(2) Mobile phone addiction tendency has an independent mediating effect between physical exercise and social anxiety of college students.(3) Self-control has an independent mediating effect between physical exercise and social anxiety of college students.(4) Mobile phone addiction tendency and self-control have a chain mediating effect between physical exercise and social anxiety of college students.