Table 1.

Inclusion and exclusion criteria

Inclusion criteria
1	A quantitative assessment of physical activity, or an experimental study where the intervention was a PA intervention, and the intervention group was compared to a control group that did not undertake exercise
2	A quantitative assessment of at least one mental health outcome variable (i.e., mental health, mental wellbeing, psychological wellbeing, subjective wellbeing, life satisfaction, positive affect, negative affect, depression, anxiety, stress, or psychological distress)
3	A quantitative assessment of the relationships between physical activity, mental health, and at least one mediator or moderator
4	A cross-sectional, longitudinal, or experimental design
5	A full-text, peer reviewed journal article
Exclusion criteria
1	measured sedentary behaviour but not levels of physical activity
2	measured mental health specifically in terms of a particular setting or circumstance (e.g., job strain)
3	solely reported qualitative data
4	published in languages other than English