Adolescents’ Life Satisfaction, Physical Activity, and the Moderating Role of Gender: A Cross-Country, Multilevel Analysis in 64 Countries

[EN] 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 adolesc...

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Autores: Cefai, Carmel, Barrado Vicente, Beatriz, Gimenez, Gregorio, Cavioni, Valeria
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2025
País:España
Institución:Universidad de León
Repositorio:BULERIA. Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad de León
OAI Identifier:oai:buleria.unileon.es:10612/26391
Acceso en línea:https://www.mdpi.com/2227-9067/12/10/1375
https://hdl.handle.net/10612/26391
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Economía
Sociología
Subjective well-being
Life satisfaction
Physical activity
Adolescence
PISA
Cross-country studies
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spelling Adolescents’ Life Satisfaction, Physical Activity, and the Moderating Role of Gender: A Cross-Country, Multilevel Analysis in 64 CountriesCefai, CarmelBarrado Vicente, BeatrizGimenez, GregorioCavioni, ValeriaEconomíaSociologíaSubjective well-beingLife satisfactionPhysical activityAdolescencePISACross-country studies[EN] 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 healthSIMDPIEconomia AplicadaFacultad de Ciencias Economicas y Empresariales2025info:eu-repo/semantics/articleinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersionhttps://www.mdpi.com/2227-9067/12/10/1375https://hdl.handle.net/10612/26391reponame:BULERIA. Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad de Leóninstname:Universidad de LeónIngléshttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccessoai:buleria.unileon.es:10612/263912026-06-24T12:43:27Z
dc.title.none.fl_str_mv Adolescents’ Life Satisfaction, Physical Activity, and the Moderating Role of Gender: A Cross-Country, Multilevel Analysis in 64 Countries
title Adolescents’ Life Satisfaction, Physical Activity, and the Moderating Role of Gender: A Cross-Country, Multilevel Analysis in 64 Countries
spellingShingle Adolescents’ Life Satisfaction, Physical Activity, and the Moderating Role of Gender: A Cross-Country, Multilevel Analysis in 64 Countries
Cefai, Carmel
Economía
Sociología
Subjective well-being
Life satisfaction
Physical activity
Adolescence
PISA
Cross-country studies
title_short Adolescents’ Life Satisfaction, Physical Activity, and the Moderating Role of Gender: A Cross-Country, Multilevel Analysis in 64 Countries
title_full Adolescents’ Life Satisfaction, Physical Activity, and the Moderating Role of Gender: A Cross-Country, Multilevel Analysis in 64 Countries
title_fullStr Adolescents’ Life Satisfaction, Physical Activity, and the Moderating Role of Gender: A Cross-Country, Multilevel Analysis in 64 Countries
title_full_unstemmed Adolescents’ Life Satisfaction, Physical Activity, and the Moderating Role of Gender: A Cross-Country, Multilevel Analysis in 64 Countries
title_sort Adolescents’ Life Satisfaction, Physical Activity, and the Moderating Role of Gender: A Cross-Country, Multilevel Analysis in 64 Countries
dc.creator.none.fl_str_mv Cefai, Carmel
Barrado Vicente, Beatriz
Gimenez, Gregorio
Cavioni, Valeria
author Cefai, Carmel
author_facet Cefai, Carmel
Barrado Vicente, Beatriz
Gimenez, Gregorio
Cavioni, Valeria
author_role author
author2 Barrado Vicente, Beatriz
Gimenez, Gregorio
Cavioni, Valeria
author2_role author
author
author
dc.contributor.none.fl_str_mv Economia Aplicada
Facultad de Ciencias Economicas y Empresariales
dc.subject.none.fl_str_mv Economía
Sociología
Subjective well-being
Life satisfaction
Physical activity
Adolescence
PISA
Cross-country studies
topic Economía
Sociología
Subjective well-being
Life satisfaction
Physical activity
Adolescence
PISA
Cross-country studies
description [EN] 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
publishDate 2025
dc.date.none.fl_str_mv 2025
dc.type.none.fl_str_mv info:eu-repo/semantics/article
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
format article
status_str publishedVersion
dc.identifier.none.fl_str_mv https://www.mdpi.com/2227-9067/12/10/1375
https://hdl.handle.net/10612/26391
url https://www.mdpi.com/2227-9067/12/10/1375
https://hdl.handle.net/10612/26391
dc.language.none.fl_str_mv Inglés
language_invalid_str_mv Inglés
dc.rights.none.fl_str_mv http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
rights_invalid_str_mv http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
eu_rights_str_mv openAccess
dc.publisher.none.fl_str_mv MDPI
publisher.none.fl_str_mv MDPI
dc.source.none.fl_str_mv reponame:BULERIA. Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad de León
instname:Universidad de León
instname_str Universidad de León
reponame_str BULERIA. Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad de León
collection BULERIA. Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad de León
repository.name.fl_str_mv
repository.mail.fl_str_mv
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