{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,12]],"date-time":"2026-08-12T05:28:02Z","timestamp":1786512482135,"version":"build-2736575974"},"reference-count":66,"publisher":"Frontiers Media SA","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,12]],"date-time":"2026-08-12T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1786492800000},"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>\n                    <jats:title>Background<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>With the widespread adoption of online social interactions, contemporary college students have shown a declining willingness to engage in face-to-face social interactions, and social anxiety has become an increasingly prominent issue, severely hindering the development of their interpersonal adaptation skills and their physical and mental well-being. Therefore, this study examines the relationship between physical exercise and social anxiety among college students and explores the chained mediating effects of self-concept clarity and psychological resilience on this relationship.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Methods<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>Using a cross-sectional questionnaire survey design, a convenience sampling method was employed to survey 563 college students from universities in Liaoning, Henan, Hebei, Shandong, and Heilongjiang, using convenience sampling. Data were collected using the Physical Activity Level Scale, the Social Anxiety Scale, the Self-Concept Clarity Scale, and the Psychological Resilience Scale. SPSS 26.0 and AMOS 26.0 were used to perform descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation analysis, structural equation modeling, and Bootstrap mediation analysis.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Results<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>\n                      (1) The results of the correlation analysis showed that the four variables\u2014physical exercise, self-concept clarity, psychological resilience, and social anxiety\u2014were significantly correlated with one another. Physical exercise was negatively correlated with social anxiety (\n                      <jats:italic>r<\/jats:italic>\n                      \u202f=\u202f\u22120.511), positively correlated with self-concept clarity (\n                      <jats:italic>r<\/jats:italic>\n                      \u202f=\u202f0.545), and positively correlated with psychological resilience (\n                      <jats:italic>r<\/jats:italic>\n                      \u202f=\u202f0.528). (2) The mediating effects of all three pathways were significant: Path 1 (physical exercise\u2192self-concept clarity\u2192social anxiety) had a mediating effect of \u22120.106, 95% CI [\u22120.168, \u22120.047]; Path 2 (physical exercise\u2192psychological resilience\u2192social anxiety) had a mediation effect of \u22120.139, 95% CI [\u22120.218, \u22120.085]; Path 3 (physical exercise\u2192self-concept clarity\u2192psychological resilience\u2192social anxiety) had a chained mediation effect of \u22120.091, 95% CI [\u22120.139, \u22120.058].\n                    <\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Conclusion<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>(1) Physical exercise is significantly negatively correlated with social anxiety among college students; (2) Self-concept clarity and psychological resilience mediate the relationship between physical exercise and social anxiety among college students in a chained manner; that is, physical exercise is associated with lower levels of social anxiety through both individual and chained mediating pathways.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.3389\/fpsyg.2026.1886156","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,12]],"date-time":"2026-08-12T04:41:13Z","timestamp":1786509673000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["The relationship between physical exercise and social anxiety among college students: the chain mediation of self-concept clarity and psychological resilience"],"prefix":"10.3389","volume":"17","author":[{"given":"Hongbo","family":"Zhao","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Physical Education, Liaoning Normal University","place":["Dalian, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Qingyang","family":"Chen","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Physical Education, Liaoning Normal University","place":["Dalian, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1965","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,12]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"108","DOI":"10.1037\/abn0000493","article-title":"Social anxiety is negatively associated with theory of mind and empathic accuracy","volume":"129","author":"Alvi","year":"2020","journal-title":"J. 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