ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Psychol.

Sec. Sport Psychology

Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1513031

This article is part of the Research TopicPhysical Education, Health and Education Innovation-Vol IIIView all 9 articles

The relationship between College Students' psychological resilience and autonomous fitness behavior: a moderated mediation model

Provisionally accepted
  • 1Chizhou University, Chizhou, China
  • 2Huaibei Normal University, Huaibei, Anhui, China
  • 3Shandong University of Science and Technology, Qingdao, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

Objective: This paper aims to explore the influence of psychological resilience on autonomous fitness behavior among college students, as well as the mechanism of perceived social support and exercise self-efficacy in this relationship.Methods: Using literature review, questionnaire surveys, and mathematical statistics, we conducted a survey among 985 college students, administering the Psychological Resilience Scale, Autonomous Fitness Behavior Scale, the Perceived Social Support Scale, and the Exercise Self-efficacy Scale.Results:(1) College students' psychological resilience has a direct impact on their autonomous fitness behavior and can positively predict it (β=0.833, p<0.001); (2) Perceived social support plays a partial mediating role between psychological resilience and autonomous fitness behavior among college students, with a mediating effect value of 0.288; (3) Exercise self-efficacy regulates the first half of the mediating path of "psychological resilience → perceived social support → autonomous fitness behavior" (β = -0.234, P < 0.001). The interaction between psychological resilience and exercise self-efficacy affects perceived social support, which in turn indirectly affects autonomous fitness behavior. Under the regulation of this mediating model, the predictive effect of psychological resilience on autonomous fitness behavior varies significantly across different levels of self-efficacy.(1) Psychological resilience can directly promote college students' autonomous fitness behavior, and can promote their autonomous fitness behavior through perceived social support. Perceived social support plays a partial mediating role between psychological resilience and autonomous fitness behavior, and this mediating effect can be moderated by exercise self-efficacy.(2) Compared with high exercise self-efficacy, for college students with low exercise self-efficacy, perceived social support plays a stronger mediating role.

Keywords: psychological resilience, perceived social support, Autonomous fitness behavior, exercise self-efficacy, college students

Received: 17 Oct 2024; Accepted: 19 May 2025.

Copyright: © 2025 Wang, ZHAO and Li. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

* Correspondence: Xiang ZHAO, Huaibei Normal University, Huaibei, 235000, Anhui, China

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