Simply meeting the daily recommended duration of MVPA fails to alleviate adolescents' mobile phone withdrawal symptoms; only combining sufficient MVPA duration with open-skill PA yields a protective effect against mobile phone dependence.
Open-skill MVPA was significantly negatively correlated with physical and mental impacts caused by mobile phone dependence.
Meeting the MVPA duration standard was significantly positively correlated with withdrawal symptoms of mobile phone dependence.
Among participants in open-skill physical activity, the negative association between meeting the duration standard and withdrawal symptoms was stronger.
Closed-skill PA showed no significant correlation with any dimension of mobile phone dependence, regardless of whether the duration standard was met.
The study sampled 971 eighth-grade junior high school students in Dalian using mixed sampling.
This research suggests that not all exercise is equally effective at reducing adolescents' reliance on mobile phones. The study, which surveyed nearly 1,000 eighth-grade students in Dalian, China, found that the type of physical activity matters just as much as how long students exercise. Specifically, 'open-skill' activities — sports and exercises that require reacting to unpredictable situations, like team sports — were associated with lower levels of the negative physical and mental effects of mobile phone dependence. In contrast, 'closed-skill' activities performed in predictable environments, like swimming laps, showed no meaningful relationship with mobile phone dependence. Interestingly, simply meeting the recommended daily amount of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) on its own was actually associated with higher withdrawal symptoms related to mobile phone dependence. However, when students both met the recommended duration AND participated in open-skill activities, a protective effect emerged — those students showed fewer withdrawal symptoms. This suggests the combination of sufficient exercise time and the right kind of exercise is what matters. This research suggests that schools and policymakers looking to address adolescent mobile phone dependence should consider not just encouraging students to be physically active for the recommended amount of time, but specifically promoting open-skill, socially interactive physical activities. The authors note that because the study relied entirely on self-reported questionnaires, future research using objective activity monitoring tools would help confirm these findings.
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Upload Your LabsYang M. (2026). A study on the correlation between types and duration of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity and mobile phone dependence among adolescents.. Frontiers in public health. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2026.1870655