RT - Journal of Men's Health ID - 10.31083/j.jomh1811212 T1 - An Examination of Longitudinal Changes in Korean Middle School Students’ Psychological Health According to Their Body Mass Index and Weekly Exercise Hours A1 - Eun-Sung Kim A1 - Hyunkyun Ahn A1 - Minhye Shin A1 - Young-Ho So K1 - body mass index; weekly exercise hours; middle school students; mental health; self-concept; self-esteem; self-efficacy YR - 2022 SP - 1 AB -

Background: It is necessary for adolescents to maintain proper body mass index (BMI) and regular exercise for proper growth, de-velopment, and psychological health. Existing studies have demonstrated the significant positive effect of regular physical activity or exercise on preventing socio-psychological problems and cognitive body image issues in adolescents. This study aimed to investigate the longitudinal changes in psychological health factors of mental health, self-concept, self-esteem, and self-efficacy according to BMI and weekly exercise hours among Korean middle school students. Methods: Cohort data were obtained from the Gyeonggi Institute of Education for three years (2015–2017), and a total of 16,027 data points were analyzed. We performed a repeated-measures analysis of variance (3 grades × 4 body mass index groups × 5 weekly exercise hours groups) using SPSS software (version 21.0, IBM Corp., Armonk, NY, USA) for data analysis. Results: The results obtained through the analysis are as follows. As school grades rose among Korean middle school students, psychological health factors such as mental health, self-concept, self-esteem, and self-efficacy decreased. And the deterioration of psychological health factors showed lower positive results for normal and underweight students than for over-weight and obese students. Students with a lot of exercise time every week showed a lower decrease in psychological health factors. Conclusions: The results suggest that education for health promotion, considering body mass index and daytime exercise, is necessary to prevent the deterioration of psychological health factors in Korean middle school students.