The Relationship Between Physical Exercise and Mental Health Promotion Among University Students in China

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to investigate the mental health status of Chinese university students, the influence of physical exercise on the mental health factors of Chinese university students, and the relationship mechanism between physical exercise and the mental health of Chinese university students, in order to provide a reference for promoting the mental health of Chinese university students. Methods: A stratified random sampling method was used to randomly select 1000 university students from a university in Henan Province, China using a questionnaire survey, and the valid sample data were 921 cases. The SPSS 26.0 software was used for correlation analysis of the collected sample data. Result: The assessment of physical exercise level of Chinese university students was based on the results rated by the Chinese National Student Physical Fitness Test Standard, in which 78 (8.46%) were excellent, 307 (33.29%) were good, 469 (50.88%) were passing, and 66 (7.37%) were failing. For the comparative analysis of the mental health, the excellent rate, good rate, and passing rate of physical test scores of male students were better than that of female students, whereas the scores of all the factors for symptom self-assessment scale (SCL-90) of female students were significantly higher than those of the male students, (P < 0.05). The comparative analysis between the mental health level of the students and the four types of sports performance, revealed that the scores of depression, anxiety, and terror in the SCL-90 with excellent, good, and passing physical fitness test were significantly lower than those with failing physical fitness test (P < 0.05). The correlation between physical exercise and the mental health of the students was analyzed and the scores of physical exercise (physical fitness test scores), depression, anxiety, and terror in the symptom self-assessment scale (SCL-90) were significant and negatively correlated (P < 0.05).