Adolescents’ Life Satisfaction, Physical Activity, and the Moderating Role of Gender: A Cross-Country, Multilevel Analysis in 64 Countries
Resumen: Background: Engaging in physical activity (PA) is especially significant for adolescents, as this is a key developmental stage for establishing lifelong habits. While the physical, mental, and cognitive health benefits of PA are well-documented, less is known about its relationship with adolescents’ life satisfaction (LS). Most existing evidence often involves small sample sizes, focusing particularly on developed regions, and few studies use large-scale comparative data. Methods: This study examines the association between adolescents’ LS and PA using data from the 2022 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), the world’s largest comparative education survey of adolescents. Our analysis included 399,794 adolescents from 64 high- and middle-income countries and economies. We used three-level multilevel regressions. Results: We found that, after controlling for individual, family, and school factors, PA is positively and significantly associated with LS. This finding holds for the pooled sample and across the 64 countries analysed. For most countries, we did not find a significant gender moderator effect, suggesting that the positive association between PA and LS did not vary by gender. Conclusions: The findings suggest a global health promotion strategy to promote PA amongst adolescents as a normative developmental process necessary for their well-being and mental health.
Idioma: Inglés
DOI: 10.3390/children12101375
Año: 2025
Publicado en: Children 12, 10 (2025), 1375 [22 pp.]
ISSN: 2227-9067

Tipo y forma: Article (Published version)
Área (Departamento): Área Economía Aplicada (Dpto. Economía Aplicada)
Exportado de SIDERAL (2025-10-17-14:07:48)


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articulos > articulos-por-area > economia_aplicada



 Notice créée le 2025-10-17, modifiée le 2025-10-17


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