Efstathios Christodoulides|Olia Tsivitanidou|Gavriella Sofokleous|David Grecic|Jonathan Sinclair|Amir Dana|Saeed Ghorbani
Does Physical Activity Mediate the Associations between Physical Literacy and Mental Health during the COVID-19 Post-Quarantine Era among Adolescents in Cyprus?
University of Central Lancashire Cyprus|University of Central Lancashire Cyprus|Ministry of Education and Culture|University of Central Lancashire|University of Central Lancashire|Islamic Azad University of Tabriz|Islamic Azad University Islamshahr Branch
despite importance physical literacy received scant scholarly attention notwithstanding obvious link physical activity health promotion including limited mental health purpose study threefold first explore selfperceived physical literacy selfreported physical activity mental health status adolescents study secondary education schools cyprus potential association variables second explore potential statistically significant gender differences across variables examination third explore whether mediating role physical activity relationship adolescent cypriots physical literacy mental health postquarantine period total 285 students aged 1318 regular middle high schools cyprus participated study physical literacy measured using perceived physical literacy instrument ppli depression anxiety stress scale21 dass21 utilized measure mental health status physical activity measured using physical activity questionnaire adolescents paqa independent sample ttests computed analyze gender differences pearson correlation test used compute bidirectional associations research variables structural equation modeling used assess structural associations research variables findings revealed statistically significant differences among boys girls depression p 00032 anxiety p 0008 stress levels p 0003 statistically significant negative correlations found among pl depression anxiety stress levels p lt 0001 pl significantly positively associated physical activity p lt 0001 despite indirect effects mental health b 051 1011 p lt 0001 physical literacy found substantial direct effects physical activity levels b 046 866 p lt 0001 addition physical activity significant indirect effects mental health b 019 548 p lt 0001 summary physical activity significantly mediated associations physical literacy mental health given findings important put strategies place build physical literacy increase physical activity among cypriot adolescents