The impact of a freestyle rope-skipping intervention on resilience in junior high school students: the mediating role of self-efficacy

Objectives This study examined whether an 8-week freestyle rope-skipping intervention improves resilience and self-efficacy among junior high school students, and whether self-efficacy serves as a partial mediator in the association between the intervention and resilience. Methods Two eighth-grade classes ( N = 90; aged 13–14 years) were assigned to either an experimental group (freestyle rope skipping; 30 min per session, three sessions per week for 8 weeks; n = 43) or a control group (regular running during the afternoon break; n = 47). Resilience was assessed using the Chinese version of the Connor–Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC), and self-efficacy was measured using the General Self-Efficacy Scale at both the pre-test and post-test. A 2 × 2 mixed model (Group Time) was used to test intervention effects, and PROCESS macro (Model 4) with 5,000 bootstrap resamples, while statistically accounting for baseline levels of the intervening variable and outcome included as covariates. Results At post-test, students in the rope-skipping class scored significantly higher of resilience (102.58 ± 12.54 vs. 77.51 ± 14.86) and self-efficacy (34.63 ± 4.37 vs. 26.66 ± 9.37) compared to the control group (both p < 0.01). A significant positive correlation emerged between resilience and self-efficacy scores (r = 0.508, p < 0.01). Path analysis revealed that self-efficacy partially accounted for the association between the intervention and resilience (indirect effect = 0.229, 95% bootstrap CI [0.063, 0.394]; direct effect = 1.118; total effect = 1.346). Conclusion An 8-week freestyle rope-skipping intervention was associated with significant improvements in resilience and self-efficacy among junior high school students compared with regular running. Moreover, self-efficacy served as a partial mediator in the association between the intervention and resilience, suggesting that improvements in self-efficacy may represent one pathway through which school-based physical activity supports resilience.