Mental Health and their relationship with physical activity and emotional regulation strategies in Spanish adolescents

Numerous studies have focused on variables related to preventing and promoting mental health in adolescence. The purpose of the present study was to analyze to what extent emotion regulation strategies mediate the effect of physical activity on adolescent mental health. The sample comprised 173 adolescents, who completed the “Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire, CERQ”, the “Mental Health Scale, MH-5” and the “Physician-based Assessment and Counseling for Exercise, PACE”. The results showed adaptive emotion regulation strategies have a potentiating mediating effect between physical activity and mental health and this effect decreases with maladaptive emotion regulation strategies.