Investigating the causal pathways of physical activity on cognitive and mental health

体育活动对儿童和青少年的认知和心理健康结果有积极影响。然而，人们对这些影响在不同的发展过程中有何不同以及它们是通过何种途径和机制传播的知之甚少。获得这方面的知识至关重要，以便为设计有效的干预措施提供信息，通过体育活动改善年轻人的认知和心理健康。本研究计划旨在调查身体活动对儿童和青少年认知和心理健康的影响，以揭示影响的方向和顺序。这项研究将试图回答身体活动对心理健康的积极影响在多大程度上是通过改善认知功能来介导的，反之亦然。为了解决研究问题，本研究将采用纵向千年队列研究，包括儿童和青少年心理健康（SDQ），认知和神经心理学评估，包括执行功能任务和身体活动的加速度计数据的措施。本研究的机制线索可以为后续研究的选择提供信息。如果初步研究能够回答研究问题，将在牛津和威尔学校网络内进行试点研究，以进一步解决所涉及的机制。这项研究将探讨体力活动在多大程度上可以防止某些不良生活事件。或者，将在OxWell学校网络内进行短期纵向观察研究。在这项研究中，将从从小学过渡后的7年级开始，对课程中体育课量高与低的组群进行跟踪。将使用每3个月一次的认知和心理健康指标来检验影响的方向性和顺序。适度和调解模型，并可能结构方程模型，将用于量化的关系。这个哲学博士的见解可能会提供潜在的因果途径，为什么体育活动可以保护和改善年轻人的心理健康的新的理解。

Physical activity has positive effects on cognitive and mental health outcomes in children and adolescents. However, it is poorly understood how these effects differ across development and through which pathways and mechanisms they are conveyed. Gaining this knowledge is crucial in order to inform the design of effective interventions that improve young people's cognition and mental health through physical activity. This research proposal aims to investigate the influence of physical activity on cognition and mental health in children and adolescents over time to reveal the direction and order of effects. The study will seek to answer to what extent the positive effects of physical activity on mental health are mediated via improved cognitive function, and vice versa. To address the research questions this study will employ the longitudinal Millennium Cohort Study that includes measures of child and adolescent mental health (SDQ), cognitive and neuropsychological assessments, including executive function tasks, and accelerometer data of physical activity. Mechanistic clues from this study can inform the choice of follow-up studies. If the initial study can answer the research questions, a pilot study within the OxWell school network will be performed to further address the mechanisms involved. This study will explore to what extent physical activity may protect against certain adverse life events. Alternatively, a short longitudinal observational study within the OxWell school network will be conducted. In this study cohorts with high versus low amount of physical education in the curriculum will be followed from the start of year 7 after having transitioned from primary schools. Cognitive and mental health measures at 3-monthly intervals will be used to test the directionality and order of effects. Moderation and mediation models, and potentially structural equation modelling, will be used to quantify the relationships. The insights of this DPhil may provide novel understanding of the underlying causal pathways to why physical activity can protect and improve young people's mental health.