ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Sport Psychology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1665652
This article is part of the Research TopicPhysical Education, Health and Education Innovation-Vol IIIView all 22 articles
The Relationship Between College Students' Autonomous Fitness Behavior and Mental Health Literacy: Chain mediating effect test
Provisionally accepted
- 1Advanced Business Administration Education and Training Center, School of Management, China University of Mining and Technology, Beijing, China
- 2Beijing Union University, Beijing, China
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Objective:This study aimed to explore the effect of autonomous fitness behavior on college students' mental health literacy, and the mediating roles of self-control and exercise identity. Methodology: A cross-sectional survey using cluster sampling was conducted among 974 college students from Shandong Province, China. Data on autonomous fitness behavior, mental health literacy, self-control, and exercise identity were collected using standardized scales (Cronbach's α: 0.722-0.949). SPSS 26.0 (PROCESS Macro Model 6) and AMOS 26.0 were used for statistical analyses, including correlation, regression, and mediation effect tests with 5000 Bootstrap samples. Results: (1) Autonomous fitness behavior positively predicted mental health literacy (β=0.416, p <0.001), self-control (β=0.301, p< 0.001), and exercise identity (β=0.198, p<0.001); self-control also positively predicted exercise identity (β=0.281, p<0.001). (2) Three significant indirect paths were identified:①Autonomous fitness behavior→Self-control→Mental health literacy (indirect effect=0.024, 95% CI [0.008, 0.042], accounting for 5.77% of total effect); ②Autonomous fitness behavior→Exercise identity→Mental health literacy (indirect effect=0.155, 95% CI [0.122, 0.189], accounting for 37.25% of total effect); ③Autonomous fitness behavior→Self-control→Exercise identity →Mental health literacy (indirect effect=0.066, 95%CI[0.049, 0.084], accounting for 15.87% of total effect). The total indirect effect was 0.245 (95% CI [0.210, 0.279]). Conclusion: Among the surveyed college students, autonomous fitness behavior influences mental health literacy directly and indirectly through the independent mediating effects of self-control and exercise identity, as well as their chain mediating effect. These findings provide preliminary evidence for the mechanism linking autonomous fitness behavior to mental health literacy, which may inform targeted mental health interventions in higher education settings.
Keywords: Autonomous fitness behavior, Mental health literacy, Self-Control, ExerciseIdentity, college students
Received: 14 Jul 2025; Accepted: 15 Sep 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Chen and Wang. 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: Bin Wang, 18701489649@163.com
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