Abstract
Physical exercise is an important way for college students to maintain their physical health, and life satisfaction is one of the important indicators of college students’ mental health. Therefore, this study aims to explore the relationship between physical exercise and life satisfaction of college students. Additionally, we also seek to demonstrate the chain mediating effects of core self-evaluation and positive emotion on this relationship. A total of 794 Chinese college students, 324 men and 470 women, participated in the study. The participants were 17–25years old (M=19.96±1.54). They completed the Exercise Adherence Questionnaire, Core Self-evaluation Scale, Positive Affect and Negative Affect Scale, and Satisfaction with Life Scale. Results showed a strong positive relationship between physical exercise and life satisfaction and verified the mediating effect of core self-evaluation and positive emotion on this relationship. The results also confirmed the chain mediating model between physical exercise, core self-evaluation, positive emotion, and life satisfaction. It enlightens us that we should pay more attention to the organic combination of students’ physical activities and mental health education.
Highlights
As the backbone of social development, college students’ physical and mental health is very important
Taking physical exercise as the independent variable, life satisfaction as the dependent variable, and core self-evaluation and positive emotion as the mediating variables, the chain mediation effect test yielded the results shown in Figure 1 and Tables 2, 3
The chain mediation path from physical exercise to core selfevaluation, to positive emotion, and to life satisfaction is significant, supporting Hypothesis 2. These results indicate that core self-evaluation and positive emotion play a continuous mediating role in the relationship between physical exercise and life satisfaction
Summary
As the backbone of social development, college students’ physical and mental health is very important. Life satisfaction is an individual’s perception and evaluation of his or her overall life quality (Dew and Huebner, 1994), which is an important indicator to predict individual health level. Physical exercise is one of the main ways for college students to maintain their physical and mental health. It refers to the physical activities with certain intensity, frequency, and time that individuals carry out in their spare time for the main purpose of health (Song, 2001). Many studies have shown that physical exercise has a positive protective effect on the level of individual cardiopulmonary level, muscle tissue, and brain cognition, and has a good therapeutic effect on metabolic diseases
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