ReviewFrontiers in sports and active living2026
Physical activity, resilience, and mental health in adolescents: a systematic review of recent evidence.
Review in Frontiers in sports and active living, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
1 citing paper in PubMed.
- Association Between Physical Activity and Mental Health in Primary School Children.Sports (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
8 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Background: Adolescent mental health remains a global priority. Recent studies suggest that physical activity (PA) benefits mental health in youth, with psychological resilience increasingly recognized as a key explanatory pathway. Objective: This systematic review synthesizes recent evidence published between January 2022 and December 2025 on the relationships among physical activity, resilience, and adolescent mental health. Participants: Adolescents (approximately ages 10-19) from observational cohorts and intervention trials in community and at-risk samples included in the reviewed literature. Methods: Following PRISMA guidance, we systematically searched PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, PsycINFO, and SPORTDiscus (January 2022-December 2025) using terms for PA, resilience, and adolescent mental health; reference lists were hand-searched. Eligible studies were quantitative and examined PA with resilience and mental health outcomes in adolescents. We conducted a best-evidence narrative synthesis given heterogeneity in designs and measures. Results: Across the reviewed evidence, higher physical activity levels were generally associated with better mental health outcomes and greater resilience in adolescents. A total of 10 studies formally tested mediation involving resilience or related psychosocial pathways, and all reported significant indirect effects. Conclusions: Current evidence supports PA as a scalable strategy to promote adolescent mental health, with resilience as a central mechanism. Programs that emphasize mastery, social connection, and supportive climates are likely to maximize gains. Future work should prioritize longitudinal/causal designs, harmonized measurement of resilience and outcomes, and equity-focused implementation to determine for whom and under what conditions PA most effectively fosters mental well-being.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.