The correlation between latent types of emotional processing, physical exercise and aggressive behavior among middle school students: a study based on latent profile analysis

Objective From the perspective of latent profile analysis (LPA), this study explored the relationships among emotional processing types, physical exercise, and aggressive behavior of middle school students, and clarified the mechanism of physical exercise in the association between emotional processing types and aggressive behavior. Method A cross-sectional survey was conducted in multiple regions of six provinces and municipalities in China from October to December 2025. By adopting the method of random cluster sampling, a total of 7,276 middle school students were recruited as research subjects. The Emotion Regulation Questionnaire, Physical Exercise Rating Scale, Anger Rumination Scale and Aggressive Behavior Scale were used for measurement, and SPSS 31.0 and Mplus 8.3 software packages were applied for data analysis. Results (1) There were four distinct latent types of emotional processing among middle school students, namely adaptive emotional processing type, high rumination-inhibition emotional processing type, mixed emotional processing type, and reflection-dominated emotional processing type. (2) There were significant differences in aggression and physical exercise levels across different types of emotion processing. The adaptive emotion processing type exhibited the lowest aggression and the highest physical exercise level, while the reflection-dominant type showed the highest aggression and the lowest physical exercise level, indicating a trend of lower aggression levels being associated with higher physical exercise participation. (3) After controlling for demographic variables, physical exercise and emotional processing types could significantly predict aggressive behavior; anger rumination and expressive suppression were identified as risk factors for increased aggressive behavior, while cognitive reappraisal and physical exercise served as protective factors that curbed aggressive behavior. Conclusion Physical exercise is significantly negatively correlated with adolescent aggressive behavior, and different types of emotional processing show differences in aggression risk and physical exercise levels. The results provide empirical evidence for stratified interventions based on emotional processing types, while causal relationships require further longitudinal tracking and experimental verification.