ArticleBMC psychology2025
Relationship between physical exercise and quality of life in Chinese college students: the chain mediating effect of psychological flourishing and optimistic intelligence.
Article in BMC psychology, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 4 papers.
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Who cites it
4 citing papers in PubMed.
- Mental health and depression as mediators between social media use screen time and academic integrity among tertiary students in Ghana.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- A variable- and person-centered study of physical exercise volume and psychological flourishing among Chinese college students: serial indirect associations of self-compassion and body appreciation and latent profile analysis.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Article
- The dual mediating effect of physical exercise on job performance: a conservation of resources perspective.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Article
- Effect of physical exercise on the subjective wellbeing of middle-aged and older adults: chain mediating role of self-esteem and psychological resilience.Frontiers in public health · 2026Article
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5 authors.
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Abstract
backgroundWhile physical exercise is known to enhance college students' quality of life the underlying psychological mechanisms remain underexplored. Specifically, it is unclear how positive psychological constructs sequentially mediate this relationship. This study addresses this gap by proposing and testing a chain mediation model, investigating whether physical exercise fosters psychological flourishing, which in turn enhances optimistic intelligence, ultimately leading to improved college students' quality of life. This model provides a novel, process-oriented perspective on the benefits of physical activity.
methodsThe Physical Activity Rating Scale(PARS-3), World Health Organization Quality of Life Brief Scale (WHOQOL-BREF), Optimistic Intelligence Quotient (OQ), Flourishing Scale(FS) were used to conduct a random sampling survey among 1660 college students in China. After excluding invalid responses, 1,594 participants were included. The data were analyzed via correlation, regression, and PROCESS 3.4 bootstrapping (5,000 samples, 95% CI), controlling for sex and age.
resultsPhysical exercise significantly predicted quality of life both directly (β = 0.051, p < .001) and indirectly through psychological flourishing (20.61% of the total effect), optimistic intelligence (25.45%), and sequential chain mediation (23.03%). The total indirect effect accounted for 69.09% of the variance explained.
conclusionPhysical exercise can directly promote the improvement of college students' quality of life and can also indirectly enhance it not only through the mediating effect of psychological flourishing and optimistic intelligence, but also through the chain mediating effect of the two. These results provide a theoretical reference for college students to improve their quality of life and mental health education.
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