Abstract
Social anxiety is a prevalent mental health concern among college students, often intensified by academic and interpersonal pressures on campus. This study investigated the relationship between physical activity, loneliness, and social anxiety among college students, aiming to examine the mediating role of loneliness in the process of physical activity affecting social anxiety, as well as the moderating role of gender in this mediating effect. A cross-sectional research design was adopted, and data on physical activity levels, loneliness, and social anxiety were collected through questionnaires completed by 638 students at a university in China. This study conducted a single-factor Harman test, descriptive statistical analysis, reliability analysis, correlation analysis, and independent-samples t-tests, and it modeled the moderated mediation effect. The results showed that physical activity was significantly and negatively correlated with both loneliness and social anxiety. Loneliness played a mediating role in the influence of physical activity on social anxiety, and this mediating effect was moderated by gender, being more pronounced in the female group. This study concluded that physical activity can help alleviate social anxiety, but the mechanism involving the reduction of loneliness is more apparent in women, indicating the need to consider gender differences when developing interventions, as there may be other, more significant reasons for men.