Physical activity as a modest behavioral pathway between parental marital conflict and adolescent anxiety: exploring gender differences

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Background and objective Parental marital conflict has been consistently associated with adolescent anxiety, but the behavioral correlates that may help explain this association remain insufficiently understood. This study re-examined the association between parental marital conflict and adolescent anxiety and further tested whether physical activity served as a modest statistical mediator and whether gender moderated the association between parental marital conflict and physical activity. Methods A cross-sectional self-reported survey was conducted with 2,145 adolescents in China. The survey assessed parental marital conflict, anxiety symptoms, physical activity, and demographic characteristics. Descriptive statistics, correlation analyses, mediation analysis, and moderated mediation analysis were performed using SPSS 26.0 and Hayes’ PROCESS macro with 5,000 bootstrap samples. Age, grade, place of residence, only-child status, and boarding status were included as covariates. Results Parental marital conflict was positively correlated with adolescent anxiety ( r = 0.293, p < 0.001) and negatively correlated with physical activity ( r = −0.072, p < 0.001), while physical activity was negatively correlated with anxiety ( r = −0.107, p < 0.001). In the mediation model, parental marital conflict was negatively associated with physical activity ( β = −0.070, SE = 0.021, p = 0.001), and physical activity was negatively associated with anxiety ( β = −0.083, SE = 0.021, p < 0.001). The indirect effect was statistically significant but small [effect = 0.006, BootSE = 0.002, 95% CI (0.002, 0.011)], accounting for approximately 2.06% of the total effect. Gender moderated the association between parental marital conflict and physical activity ( β = 0.073, SE = 0.021, p < 0.001). Conclusion The findings suggest that physical activity may represent a modest behavioral correlate in the association between parental marital conflict and adolescent anxiety, and that this pathway may differ by gender. Given the cross-sectional design and the small indirect effect, the results should be interpreted cautiously and should not be taken as evidence of causal protection.

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