A latent profile analysis of physical activity participation patterns and mental health among university students: the mediating role of emotion regulation

Why Daily Movement Matters for Students’ Minds

University life often means long hours at a desk, late nights, and constant pressure. Many students know that exercise is “good for you,” but this study asks a more realistic question: how do the actual patterns of moving, walking, and sitting that students fall into every day relate to their mood and stress levels? By looking at different styles of physical activity, rather than just how many minutes of exercise someone does, the researchers show that certain everyday movement habits are especially linked to better mental health—and that improved control over emotions is a big part of the story.

Four Common Ways Students Move Through the Day

The researchers surveyed 1,059 Chinese university students about how often they did vigorous exercise, moderate exercise, and walking over the past week, and how strongly they felt they spent most weekdays in a sedentary state. Instead of treating activity as a single number, they used a statistical approach to uncover hidden “profiles” of behavior. Four distinct patterns emerged. One group reported very little activity of any kind and strongly identified with being sedentary. A second, and largest, group had moderate levels of all activities and a middling tendency to sit. A third group reported high levels of vigorous and moderate exercise, plus relatively low endorsement of sitting. The fourth group was the most active overall and stood out for very frequent walking and the weakest sense of being sedentary.

How Movement Patterns Line Up With Mood and Stress

Students in these four movement profiles differed clearly in their levels of depression, anxiety, and perceived stress. Those in the low-activity, highly sedentary group reported the worst mental health on all three measures. The moderate-activity group fell in the middle, while the high-activity, low-sedentary group did better. The best outcomes belonged to the highly active, walking-dominant group, who showed the lowest depression, anxiety, and stress. These results suggest that it is not only how much students move that matters, but also how their walking, more intense exercise, and sitting combine into an overall daily pattern.

Emotion Skills as the Missing Link

To understand why these patterns might relate to mental health, the study focused on emotion regulation—the ability to manage one’s feelings using strategies such as reinterpreting a situation or calming outward reactions. Students filled out a standard questionnaire about how they typically handle emotions. The more active profiles, especially those with frequent walking and less sitting, scored higher on emotion regulation ability. In turn, better emotion regulation was strongly tied to lower depression, anxiety, and stress. When the researchers modeled these relationships, they found that part of the benefit of active patterns worked directly on mood and stress, and part worked indirectly by boosting emotion regulation, particularly for anxiety.

Why Walking Stands Out Among Active Habits

One of the most striking findings was that the walking-dominant profile did even better than the group centered on vigorous and moderate workouts. Walking is easier to sustain, can be woven into a busy schedule, and tends to feel less like a demanding “extra task.” Regular, rhythmic walking may support healthy body rhythms, improve sleep, and create frequent, low-pressure opportunities to practice calming and refocusing the mind. In contrast, intense but sporadic workouts can be physically helpful yet may also feel like an added burden when academic stress is high. This helps explain why students who walk a lot and sit less appear to enjoy the greatest relief from stress and negative mood.

What This Means for Students and Campuses

Overall, the study concludes that university students fall into distinct movement lifestyles that are closely linked to their mental well-being. Those who move very little and strongly see themselves as sedentary are at higher risk for depression, anxiety, and stress. Those who keep active, especially through frequent walking woven into daily life, tend to feel better and handle emotions more effectively. For students, this suggests that building a steady habit of walking and breaking up long sitting spells may be a realistic way to protect mental health, even without intense workout routines. For universities, it points toward designing campuses, timetables, and programs that make regular walking and light activity easy and appealing, as a low-threshold route to stronger emotional coping and healthier minds.

Citation: Chen, L., Ke, W., Li, G. et al. A latent profile analysis of physical activity participation patterns and mental health among university students: the mediating role of emotion regulation. Sci Rep 16, 10706 (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-026-46383-3

Keywords: university students, physical activity patterns, walking and sedentary behavior, emotion regulation, depression anxiety stress