Exploring the longitudinal relationship between physical activity and grit: the mediating role of creative personality in middle school students

초록

Background Grit is a critical determinant of long-term success during adolescence, yet the developmental pathways associated with developing this trait through physical activities remain underexplored.Objective This study investigated the longitudinal relationships among exercise time, creative personality, and grit, specifically examining whether creative personality mediates the developmental link between physical activity and grit in middle school students.Methods Data were drawn from the Korean Children and Youth Panel Survey (KCYPS 2018), including 2,325 middle school students tracked over three waves. A latent growth mediation model was employed to assess the longitudinal associations between the developmental trajectories of exercise time and grit, with creative personality as a mediating variable.Results Exercise time was positively associated with both creative personality and grit at their baseline levels. Trajectories of exercise time were significantly associated with the patterns of creative personality and grit over the three-year period. Mediation analyses indicated that creative personality significantly mediated the relationship between exercise participation and grit development. Specifically, engagement in physical activity was associated with a more sustained creative personality, which in turn was associated with a favorable trajectory for grit among adolescents.Conclusion Physical activity may serve as a supportive factor for supporting grit by being positively linked to creative personality during early adolescence. These findings suggest that to promote youth resilience and goal orientation, practitioners and educators could consider integrated programs that combine structured physical engagement with opportunities for fostering creative traits.

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