How physical activity influences flourishing of adolescents: an integrated analysis of sufficiency and necessity

In response to the contemporary emphasis on promoting adolescents’ physical and mental health, this study adopted a mixed-methods approach to examine the relationship between physical activity on adolescents’ flourishing, tested the mediating roles of self-worth and boredom in this relationship, and further examined the necessity and bottleneck levels of physical activity intensity, duration, and frequency, as well as self-worth and boredom (internal stimulation and external stimulation), for adolescents’ flourishing. Drawing on the core propositions of the Cognitive-Affective Processing System (CAPS), this study constructed a dual-path mediation model to examine how physical activity was associated with adolescents’ flourishing through self-worth and boredom. In this model, self-worth was specified as a primarily cognitive-evaluative mediator, whereas boredom was specified as a primarily affective-experiential mediator. Survey data were collected from 985 adolescents. Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) was used to test sufficiency relationships, whereas Necessary Condition Analysis (NCA) was used to examine the necessity and bottleneck levels of key antecedent variables. (1) The results showed that physical activity was positively associated with adolescents’ flourishing (p < 0.01), positively associated with self-worth (p < 0.001), and negatively associated with boredom (p < 0.001); (2) As the level of flourishing increased, the antecedent conditions required to achieve higher levels of the outcome also increased, gradually showing a pattern of multi-variable synergy; (3) Mediation analyses further showed that physical activity was associated with adolescents’ flourishing indirectly through both self-worth and boredom. Physical activity intensity, duration, and frequency did not emerge as necessary conditions for adolescents’ flourishing. Nevertheless, physical activity showed a positive facilitating association with flourishing. In addition, physical activity was linked to flourishing through both cognitive-evaluative and affective-experiential pathways, indicating that physical activity contributed to higher levels of flourishing by strengthening positive self-evaluation and reducing boredom-related constraints.