Sun Yi, Zhao Yang, Yang Jie
College of Basic Medicine, Jining Medical University, Jining, Shandong, China.
Department of Chinese and History, City University of Hong Kong, Kowloon, Hong Kong SAR, China.
Front Psychol. 2025 Apr 28;16:1565998. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1565998. eCollection 2025.
College students commonly exhibit low levels of physical activity participation, which not only impacts physical health but also negatively affects mental well-being and academic performance. Although existing research has focused on the effects of sports preference, sports achievement emotions, and exercise motivation on physical activity participation, the interactive mechanisms among these three factors have yet to be systematically explored.
This study aims to investigate how college students' sports preferences, sports achievement emotions, and exercise motivation influence physical activity participation through mediating effects.
A cross-sectional questionnaire survey was conducted online, recruiting 801 undergraduates (58.18% female). The study utilized a sports preference scale, a sports achievement emotion questionnaire, an exercise motivation scale, and the number of days per week of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity to measure the variables. After controlling for demographic characteristics, mediation effect analysis was performed using Stata 17.0.
Sports preferences (SP) had a significant positive direct effect on physical activity participation (PAP) among college students ( = 55.494, < 0.001). Positive sports achievement emotions (PSAE) significantly mediated the relationship between SP and PAP (indirect effect = 5.644, < 0.001). Exercise motivation (EM) also exhibited a significant mediating effect (indirect effect = 2.304, < 0.001). Moreover, a positive correlation between PSAE and EM was observed, creating a chain mediation effect (SP → PSAE → EM → PAP), with an indirect effect of 1.424 ( < 0.001). These findings suggest that sports preferences not only directly enhance physical activity levels but also promote physical activity participation through a multi-level pathway involving positive emotions and exercise motivation.
College students' sports preferences significantly predict physical activity participation, with positive sports achievement emotions and exercise motivation playing crucial roles as mediators and chain mediators. Future research should incorporate longitudinal designs or intervention experiments and include more diverse evaluation indicators to further validate and extend the findings of this study.
大学生普遍表现出体育活动参与水平较低，这不仅影响身体健康，还会对心理健康和学业成绩产生负面影响。尽管现有研究关注了运动偏好、运动成就情绪和运动动机对体育活动参与的影响，但这三个因素之间的交互机制尚未得到系统探讨。
本研究旨在探讨大学生的运动偏好、运动成就情绪和运动动机如何通过中介效应影响体育活动参与。
通过在线进行横断面问卷调查，招募了801名本科生（女性占58.18%）。该研究使用运动偏好量表、运动成就情绪问卷、运动动机量表以及每周中等至剧烈体育活动的天数来测量变量。在控制人口统计学特征后，使用Stata 17.0进行中介效应分析。
运动偏好（SP）对大学生的体育活动参与（PAP）有显著的正向直接效应（β = 55.494，p < 0.001）。积极的运动成就情绪（PSAE）显著中介了SP与PAP之间的关系（间接效应 = 5.644，p < 0.001）。运动动机（EM）也表现出显著的中介效应（间接效应 = 2.304，p < 0.001）。此外，观察到PSAE与EM之间存在正相关，形成了链式中介效应（SP→PSAE→EM→PAP），间接效应为1.424（p < 0.001）。这些发现表明，运动偏好不仅直接提高体育活动水平，还通过涉及积极情绪和运动动机的多层次途径促进体育活动参与。
大学生的运动偏好显著预测体育活动参与，积极的运动成就情绪和运动动机作为中介和链式中介发挥着关键作用。未来的研究应纳入纵向设计或干预实验，并包括更多样化的评估指标，以进一步验证和扩展本研究的结果。
