The Role of Physical Education in Cognitive Performance and Sustainable Lifestyle: The Mediating Role of Emotional Violence and Emotional Closeness

Abstract

The juncture of physical education, sustainable lifestyle and cognitive development choices has increasing garnered scholarly attention during the past decades. The current study explores the complex role of physical education in enhancing fostering long-term sustainable lifestyle habits and cognitive performance, while examining how emotional closeness and emotional violence act as mediating psychological variables in these dynamic relationships. The education significantly contributes to diverse functioning by promoting students’ potential towards desired outcomes. The engagement in the regular physical activity through structured physical education programs improves executive functions such as consideration, cognitive flexibility and working memory, skills critical to problem-solving and academic success. The physical education is instrumental in instilling sustainable behaviors, including routine physical activity, eating, psychological well-being and environmental consciousness. Students exposed to quality physical education are likely to adopt and sustain healthy habits that reduce risk of diseases, minimize environmental tracks, and contribute to all-inclusive well-being. This negative affective climate diminishes cognitive gains and disrupts the formation of healthy habits that would otherwise be achieved through active engagement. Conversely, emotional closeness donates to improved cognitive performance and internalization of sustainable lifestyle values, like discipline, responsibility, and community engagement for outcomes. In this drive, for attaining the desired outcomes, data was collected from students, hailing from higher educational institutions from Punjab, Pakistan. The research was focused to examine the hypothesized relationships amid physical education, cognitive performance, sustainable lifestyle, emotional violence and emotional closeness through different hypotheses as extracted from the theoretical framework of study thereby using secondary and primary data sources for collecting the relevant facts and figures and analyzing the data through different procedures for attaining the desired outcomes. This study highlights the dualistic mediating roles of emotional violence and emotional closeness in the relationship between physical education, cognitive performance, and sustainable lifestyle development. Interventions in educational policy and physical education program design should prioritize supportive emotionally environments and address explicitly the reduction of emotional violence to unlock the full developmental potential of students. A holistic approach that integrates cognitive, physical, and emotional dimensions is essential for cultivating resilient, environmentally responsible and cognitively capable, future citizens. The results offered significant information for reaching conclusion and offering recommendations to policy-makers and future researchers.  

Keywords: Physical Education, Cognitive Performance, Sustainable Lifestyle, Emotional Violence Emotional Closeness & Mediation