The aim was to analyze the mediation role of self-esteem in the interaction between social support from
the best friend, friends, and parents, and physical activity (PA). Participants were N=444 adolescents of both
genders (male= 205), aged between 12-18 years (M= 16.02; SD= 1.57). Structural equation modeling, serial
mediation and multigroup analysis were used to test the proposed hypothesis. Self-reported instruments were
used to collect both PA social support and self-esteem. Self-esteem mediates partially the interaction between
different social supports and vigorous PA, independently of adolescent sex. Interestingly, self-esteem was
fully mediating the interaction between parents’ social support and vigorous PA in female adolescents. In
contrast, self-esteem revealed no mediation in the interaction between social support and light and moderate
PA. In conclusion, self-esteem mediates the relationship between social support and vigorous PA, the strength
of mediation is higher in girls than in boys, in both genders the mediation is higher when the social support
has come from parents.
This work was supported by the National Funding through the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology, I.P., under the project UID04045/2020. The authors would like to thank all the students that participated in this study.
