{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,5]],"date-time":"2026-10-05T16:56:53Z","timestamp":1791219413182,"version":"4.1.0"},"reference-count":49,"publisher":"Frontiers Media SA","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2025,9,22]],"date-time":"2025-09-22T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1758499200000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["frontiersin.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Front. Psychol."],"abstract":"<jats:sec><jats:title>Introduction<\/jats:title><jats:p>This study, grounded in social cognitive theory, investigates the impact of physical activity on depression levels among international students, with a focus on the mediating role of self-efficacy and the moderating effect of social support, aiming to unpack the mechanisms linking physical activity to mental health in this cross-cultural population.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Methods<\/jats:title><jats:p>A cross-sectional design was employed, involving 903 international students from two South Korean universities; data were collected via standardized questionnaires and analyzed using SPSS 26.0, with analytical methods including descriptive statistics, correlation analysis, mediation analysis, and moderated regression.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Results<\/jats:title><jats:p>Three key findings were revealed: (1) physical activity exhibited a significant negative correlation with depression levels; (2) physical activity was positively associated with self-efficacy (which in turn negatively correlated with depression), and self-efficacy partially mediated the relationship between physical activity and depression; (3) social support moderated the effect of physical activity on depression.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Discussion<\/jats:title><jats:p>These findings elucidate the underlying mechanisms through which physical activity benefits mental health, highlighting the synergistic roles of self-efficacy (as an internal psychological resource) and social support (as an external buffering factor); the study provides empirical support for integrated interventions combining physical activity promotion, self-efficacy enhancement, and social support reinforcement to mitigate depression among international students, and demonstrates that enhancing self-efficacy and reinforcing social support can significantly amplify the antidepressant effects of physical activity in this group, offering new insights for cross-cultural mental health interventions.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.3389\/fpsyg.2025.1662687","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2025,9,22]],"date-time":"2025-09-22T05:29:23Z","timestamp":1758518963000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":2,"title":["Physical activity and depression of Chinese students in Korea: self-efficacy as a mediator and social support as a moderator"],"prefix":"10.3389","volume":"16","author":[{"given":"Pengfei","family":"Chang","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1965","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2025,9,22]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref1","first-page":"270","article-title":"The study of links between social support and psychological problems among youth","volume":"3","author":"Alimoradi","year":"2014","journal-title":"Int. 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