ArticleFrontiers in public health2026
The relationship among college students' social support, exercise motivation, and physical exercise behavior: a cross-lagged analysis.
Article in Frontiers in public health, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Objective: This study examines the dynamic relationship among social support, exercise motivation, and physical exercise behavior, and tests the longitudinal mediating role of exercise motivation between social support and subsequent exercise behavior. Methods: Using Jiangxi Normal University as the sample institution, a three-wave cross-lagged model was employed, with measurements taken every six months (T1, T2, T3); the final matched sample comprised 576 participants. Measurements were taken using the Social Support Scale, the Exercise Motivation Scale and the Physical Activity Level Scale. Results: The findings indicate that: (1) there are significant correlations between social support, exercise motivation and physical exercise behavior, both within and across time periods; (2) Cross-lagged analysis revealed that, across every two consecutive waves, there were significant bidirectional positive longitudinal associations between social support, exercise motivation and physical exercise behavior; (3) The results of the mediation analysis showed that social support at T1 had no significant direct predictive effect on physical exercise behavior at T3 [β = 0.006, 95% CI (-0.091, 0.103), Conclusion: These findings suggest that external support can only lead to sustained behavioral change when it is internalized as intrinsic motivation. Consequently, interventions should prioritize stimulating and maintaining exercise motivation, whilst making full use of the mutually reinforcing feedback loop between social support and exercise motivation, in order to achieve sustainable changes in health behaviors.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.