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Associations between exercise motivation and self-efficacy through leisure satisfaction and psychological resilience
Taiping Li1, Qiuxian Ye2, Yafei Yuan3
1Guangdong University of Science and Technology, Dongguan, Guangdong, China.
Objective:
Growing concern has emerged regarding the mental health of young adults, particularly within university settings where academic and psychosocial pressures are prominent. Exercise motivation (EM), conceptualized within self-determination theory (SDT), especially intrinsic and identified regulation, has been associated with psychological well-being. However, the structural associations among exercise motivation (EM), leisure satisfaction (LS), psychological resilience (PR), and self-efficacy (SE) in young adults remain insufficiently clarified.
Methods:
This cross-sectional study examined these associations in a sample of 437 university students aged 18-23 years in China. Data were collected through validated self-report instruments and analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM).
Results:
The results indicated that exercise motivation was positively associated with leisure satisfaction (β = 0.794, p < 0.001), leisure satisfaction was positively associated with psychological resilience (β = 0.342, p < 0.001), and PR was positively associated with self-efficacy (β = 0.228, p < 0.001). Sequential mediation analysis showed that leisure satisfaction and PR jointly accounted for a significant indirect association between EM and SE (β = 0.062, p = 0.001). Model fit indices (SRMR = 0.055; NFI = 0.847) indicated an acceptable level of fit within the prediction-oriented PLS-SEM approach.
Conclusion:
These findings indicate that exercise motivation is statistically associated with psychological resources among young adults. Although causal inferences cannot be drawn due to the cross-sectional design, the study contributes to understanding motivational processes within the SDT framework and provides directions for future longitudinal research.
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