Open Access

ARTICLE

Exploring Adolescents’ Social Anxiety, Physical Activity, and Core Self-Evaluation: A Latent Profile and Mediation Approach

Huazhe Wan¹, Wenying Huang², Wen Zhang², Chang Hu^2,*

1 Science and Technology College, Nanchang Hangkong University, Nanchang, 330000, China
2 School of Physical Education, Jiangxi Normal University, Nanchang, 330031, China

* Corresponding Author: Chang Hu. Email:

(This article belongs to the Special Issue: Latent Profile Analysis in Mental Health Research: Exploring Heterogeneity through Person Centric Approach)

International Journal of Mental Health Promotion 2025, 27(10), 1611-1626. https://doi.org/10.32604/ijmhp.2025.070457

Received 16 July 2025; Accepted 16 September 2025; Issue published 31 October 2025

Abstract

Background: Social anxiety is prevalent among adolescents and severely impacts their mental health and social functioning. This study aims to explore the underlying mechanisms and subgroup differences in adolescent social anxiety to provide a theoretical basis for targeted interventions. Methods: 3025 Chinese adolescents (Mean_age = 13.91 ± 1.60 years; 47% male) completed self-report measures of physical activity, core self-evaluation, and social anxiety. Variable-centered analyses employed PROCESS Model 4 with 5000 bootstrap samples; covariates were gender, grade, and place of residence. Person-centered analyses used latent profile analysis in Mplus 8.3 to identify subgroups based on social anxiety item profiles. Results: Variable-centered analyses showed that physical activity had a significant negative association with social anxiety (β = −0.224, p < 0.001) and a significant positive association with core self-evaluation (β = 0.471, p < 0.001); core self-evaluation partially mediated this relationship, accounting for 30% of the total effect. Person-centered analyses revealed an optimal two-profile solution: a low social anxiety profile (89.6%) and a high social anxiety profile (10.4%). The high social anxiety profile reported significantly lower physical activity and lower core self-evaluation than the low social anxiety profile. Conclusions: This study integrates variable-centered and person-centered evidence, identifies physical activity and core self-evaluation as key modifiable factors in reducing social anxiety, providing a theoretical basis for targeted and differentiated interventions.

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Keywords

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