Fang Yi, Ming Kiu Lee, Zhi Zhang
PA and AGG were relatively separate at the component level, while anger-related aggression items were central within the aggression system. Because data were cross-sectional, directed edges should be interpreted as exploratory conditional dependencies rather than causal or temporal pathways.
BACKGROUND: Physical activity and aggression are important topics in adolescent psychology, but item-level links between physical activity (PA) and aggressive behavior (AGG) remain unclear.
METHODS: This cross-sectional study analyzed 1,276 Chinese secondary school students using standardized PA and AGG questionnaires. Regularized partial-correlation networks, expected-influence indices, network intervention response analysis, and Bayesian directed acyclic graphs were used to examine conditional dependency patterns.
RESULTS: The undirected network showed strong within-domain aggression dependencies and relatively sparse, weak PA-AGG cross-domain edges. Anger-related items (AGG14, AGG17, AGG15) and one physical-aggression item (AGG3) showed high expected influence. Network intervention response analysis indicated asymmetric activation patterns, and the Bayesian DAG placed anger-related items in upstream dependency positions.
CONCLUSION: PA and AGG were relatively separate at the component level, while anger-related aggression items were central within the aggression system. Because data were cross-sectional, directed edges should be interpreted as exploratory conditional dependencies rather than causal or temporal pathways.