Comparative Experimental Study on How Physical Education Influences Psychological Well‐Being and Cognitive Development Among College Students

Physical education (PE) plays an important role in improving the psychological well-being (PWB) and cognitive ability of college students (CS). In this study, a six-week intervention based on PE was applied to investigate its influence on psychological and cognitive variables of CS by employing the experimental method. Three-hundred CS were randomly selected as participants, an experimental group, and a control group, each containing 150 participants. Students in the experimental group underwent the PE intervention program, whereas the control group did not experience any such intervention. Data were collected by means of pre-post test questionnaires and interviews. Data analysis was done using Statistical Package of Social Sciences (SPSS) and NVivo. Results show that the experimental group performed significantly better than the control group in terms of the levels of PWB, self-esteem (SE), cognitive functioning, problem-solving skills (PSS), and resilience and adaptability (RA). Effects of intervention with respect to moderate-to-large magnitude were evident, RA (d = 0.988), PE-related PWB (d = 0.890), cognitive function (CF) (d = 0.785), and PSS (d = 0.715). The novelty lies in the use of both psychological and cognitive measures within a longitudinal mixed-methods research design. The results indicate that well-designed PE interventions effectively promote the psychological and cognitive development of students.