Psychology Congress 2027

Social anxiety can adversely affect college students' mental health and interpersonal functioning. This study examined whether body image and self-esteem independently and sequentially mediate the association between physical exercise and social anxiety. A cluster-sampling survey was conducted among undergraduate and graduate students at Liaoning Normal University in Dalian, China. After invalid questionnaires were excluded, 521 participants aged 19-26 years (M = 20.98, SD = 1.28) were included. Physical exercise, body image, self-esteem, and social anxiety were assessed using validated scales. Pearson correlations were calculated in SPSS 27.0, and serial mediation was tested using PROCESS Model 6 with 5,000 bootstrap samples. Physical exercise was positively correlated with body image and self-esteem and negatively correlated with social anxiety. The direct effect of physical exercise on social anxiety was -0.07, 95% CI [-0.14, -0.01]. Significant indirect effects were observed through body image (-0.03, 95% CI [-0.06, -0.01]), self-esteem (-0.02, 95% CI [-0.02, -0.01]), and the serial pathway through body image and self-esteem (-0.01, 95% CI [-0.03, -0.01]). These findings suggest that physical exercise is associated with lower social anxiety both directly and indirectly through more positive body image and higher self-esteem.

Hongxin Huang is a doctoral student in physical education and training at Liaoning Normal University. His research focuses on physical activity, exercise psychology, and mental health, with particular interest in the psychological mechanisms linking physical activity to psychosocial outcomes among adolescents and college students.