Objectives
The objectives are to explore the relationship between study stress and anxiety in high school students and the mediating role of physical activity and mobile phone addiction.
Design
A cross-sectional study.
Setting
129 high schools were randomly selected in 13 cities of Jiangsu province, China.
Participants
High school students aged 16–19 years, age and gender balance. A total of 40 000 questionnaires were distributed, with 32 974 effectively recovered.
Primary and secondary outcome measures
Questionnaires were administered offline, covering four parts: General Demographics, Learning Stress Scale, International Physical Activity Questionnaire, Mobile Phone Addiction Scale and Generalized Anxiety Scale-7. Data analysis included path analysis and correlation analysis, along with descriptive statistics, independent sample t-test, correlation analysis and structural equation model.
Results
In this study, the proportions of anxiety, high academic pressure, low physical activity level and high mobile phone addiction were 58.18%, 46.48%, 36.40% and 39.26%, respectively. Study stress was positively correlated with anxiety (r=0.130, p physical activity level – > mobile phone addiction – > anxiety’ was 0.072, and the 95% CI of Bootstrap (0.226, 0.400), and the mediating effect was significant.
Conclusions
High school students’ learning stress can significantly positively predict anxiety levels. High school students learning stress indirectly predicts anxiety through the independent mediating effect of physical activity and mobile phone addiction, as well as the chain mediating effect of physical activity and mobile phone addiction.