Ability exposure in physical education and university students' psychological well-being: evaluation anxiety as a mediator and PE belonging and disadvantaged status as contextual conditions.

Physical education (PE) is often regarded as beneficial for students' physical and psychosocial development; however, its psychological correlates may depend on the evaluative conditions under which participation occurs. Drawing on the view that PE is an embodied, publicly performed, and socially comparable context, this cross-sectional study examined whether ability exposure in PE was associated with university students' psychological well-being through evaluation anxiety, and whether PE belonging and disadvantaged status functioned as contextual conditions. A survey was completed by 648 undergraduate students enrolled in PE courses. Results showed that ability exposure was associated with higher evaluation anxiety and lower psychological well-being. Evaluation anxiety statistically mediated the negative association between ability exposure and psychological well-being. PE belonging was associated with lower evaluation anxiety and higher psychological well-being, whereas disadvantaged status was associated with higher evaluation anxiety and lower psychological well-being. However, the hypothesized moderation effects and the indices of moderated mediation were not statistically significant. Given the cross-sectional correlational design, these findings should be interpreted as associations rather than causal effects. The study suggests that the psychological meaning of PE may depend less on participation itself than on how bodily performance is made visible, comparable, and open to judgment.