Physical Activity and Psychological Well-Being Among Older Adults: A Dual Social-Affective Pathway Model

Physical activity is associated with psychological well-being in later life, yet the interpersonal and affective pathways underlying this relationship remain unclear. Using data from the 2020 Korean National Survey of Older Persons, this study examined associations among physical activity, social contact, positive affect, and evaluative psychological well-being. Confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling were conducted using AMOS 26.0, with indirect effects evaluated through bias-corrected bootstrapping with 5000 resamples. Physical activity was positively associated with both social contact and positive affect, which were, in turn, positively associated with psychological well-being. The direct association between physical activity and psychological well-being was not statistically significant (β = 0.019, p = 0.077), whereas the total indirect association through social contact and positive affect was significant (β = 0.109, 95% CI [0.094, 0.125], p < 0.001). The model explained 29.7% of the variance in psychological well-being. These findings are consistent with a dual interpersonal-affective perspective on the association between physical activity and psychological well-being in later life. Given the cross-sectional design, these associations should be interpreted as statistical rather than causal. The social-contact pathway should be interpreted with caution, as this construct showed limited reliability and convergent validity.