Physical activity, regulatory emotional self-efficacy, and suicidal ideation in adolescents: a variable-centered and person-centered approach

Front Psychol. 2026 May 18;17:1775139. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2026.1775139. eCollection 2026.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Suicidal ideation (SI) is an important early marker of suicide-related risk during adolescence. Clarifying modifiable factors associated with SI, as well as identifying adolescents with distinct patterns of SI, may help inform more targeted prevention efforts. This study investigated the relationships among physical activity (PA), regulatory emotional self-efficacy (RE), and SI, and further examined whether adolescents could be classified into latent SI subgroups.

METHODS: Adolescents were invited to complete self-report measures of PA, RE, and SI. Variable-centered analyses were used to test the associations among the study variables and the indirect association involving RE after adjusting for demographic covariates. A person-centered latent profile analysis (LPA) was then conducted to explore whether distinct SI profiles could be identified.

RESULTS: Higher PA was related to lower SI and higher RE. RE showed a significant indirect association between PA and SI. The LPA supported a two-profile solution, consisting of a high-SI profile with lower PA and weaker RE and a low-SI profile with higher PA and stronger RE.

CONCLUSION: PA and RE were both associated with lower SI among adolescents and are relevant to prevention-oriented research and practice. The combined variable-centered and person-centered findings indicate that adolescent SI is better understood by considering both overall PA-RE-SI associations and subgroup differences in suicide-related cognition.

PMID:42233076 | PMC:PMC13222803 | DOI:10.3389/fpsyg.2026.1775139