Abstract Objectives There has been increasing global attention on the rise of negative mental health among adolescents. Much research has examined the relationship between negative mental health states and physical activity (PA) among adolescents. However, the association between positive mental health states (e.g. mental well-being), and PA has not been as extensively investigated. This study aimed to investigate the association between PA and mental well-being in adolescents and whether sex moderated the association. Methods Data stem from a Danish nationally representative sample of 3,732 adolescents aged 13 and 15 from the 2022 cross-sectional Health Behaviour in School-aged Children study. PA was assessed using two measures: meeting the guidelines of 60-min daily moderate-to-vigorous PA (MVPA) and time spent on leisure time vigorous PA (VPA). Mental well-being was assessed using the SWEMWBS scale. Logistic regression analyses were conducted. Results Our findings show significant positive associations between different measures for PA and mental well-being. The strongest association was found for meeting the MVPA guidelines. Adolescents who met the MVPA guidelines were more likely to report high mental well-being (OR=2.01, 95 % CI: 1.61–2.52). There was also a positive association between the other PA measures, however the positive association was lower with more VPA included in the exposure. The relationship between PA and mental well-being was not moderated by sex. Conclusions The results indicate that PA may be beneficial for mental well-being among adolescents. Further research is needed to understand the causal relation and mechanisms involved in the association.
Braendgaard et al. (Thu,) studied this question.