43 THE INFLUENCE OF PHYSICAL EXERCISE ON THE MENTAL AND EMOTIONAL REGULATION ABILITY OF COLLEGE STUDENTS

Abstract Background The high-pressure environment of modern society has led to increasingly serious mental health problems among college students, such as anxiety, depression, and mood swings, which have become important factors affecting their academic performance and quality of life. Sport is widely recognized as an economical and easy-to-implement mental health intervention, and studies have shown that sport not only enhances mental toughness by increasing physical fitness, but also regulates psychological states by releasing stress hormones and neurotransmitters that promote positive emotions. However, the mechanisms by which different exercise modes and intensities affect emotional regulation have not been fully clarified. The study aims to investigate the effects of aerobic exercise on college students’ emotion regulation and mental health, and to provide a scientific basis for mental health interventions in colleges and universities. Methods The study was conducted on 200 college students of a university with an age range of 18 to 25 years old, with a balanced gender ratio, who volunteered to participate in the study and had no history of major physical or mental illnesses. The participants were randomized into experimental and control groups, 100 in each group. The experimental group received an eight-week physical activity intervention consisting of three 60-minute sessions of aerobic exercise per week, including running, calisthenics, and basketball, while the control group maintained their study and lifestyle habits and did not participate in any systematic physical activity intervention. Before and after the intervention, the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (ERQ) and the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ) were used to measure the emotion regulation ability and mental health of the two groups of students. Data were analyzed for intervention effects by paired t-tests, with P<0.05 as the criterion for significance. Results The results of the experiment showed that the physical education and sport intervention had a significant effect on both emotional regulation and mental health of the university students. The ERQ scores of the experimental group increased from 14.3±3.2 before the intervention to 22.7±4.1 after the intervention, while the ERQ scores of the control group only increased from 14.5±3.4 to 15.2±3.5, which was not a significant difference. The results of mental health assessment showed that the GHQ score of the experimental group decreased from 18.5±6.3 to 12.1±5.7, which was significantly better than that of the control group. The experimental group showed a significant decrease in the indicators of psychological stress and negative emotions (P<0.01), demonstrating a stronger ability to regulate emotions. Discussion The results of the study show that physical exercise can significantly enhance the emotion regulation ability and mental health of college students. Regular aerobic exercise helps college students cope with academic pressure and social challenges by regulating nervous system function and promoting positive emotional expression, effectively relieving psychological stress and reducing negative emotional responses. At the same time, group exercise programs also enhance participants’ sense of social support by providing opportunities for social interaction, which further improves their psychological adaptability.