ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Educational Psychology
Theme-Based Campus Activities and Student Well-Being and Achievement Motivation Among Chinese University Students: Differential Mediation Effects of Basic Psychological Need Satisfaction
Provisionally accepted
- Jiangsu University of Science and Technology, Zhenjiang, China
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Background: Theme-based campus initiatives that integrate values, learning, and social engagement are increasingly used to promote students' holistic development in Chinese universities. However, empirical evidence on how such activities are associated with students' mental health and achievement motivation, and the psychological mechanisms underlying these effects, remains limited. Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted among 2,108 students (1,247 males, 861 females; including 892 freshmen, 456 sophomores, 398 juniors, 245 seniors, and 117 graduate students) at a comprehensive university in Jiangsu Province, China. Participants completed validated measures of activity participation, basic psychological need satisfaction (autonomy, competence, relatedness), mental health (DASS-21, reverse-coded), and achievement motivation. Independent-samples t-tests, hierarchical regression, and parallel mediation analyses (PROCESS Model 4, 5,000 bootstraps) were used to examine participation effects and underlying mechanisms while controlling for demographic covariates. Results: Students who participated in the university's "Spirit of the Ship" theme-based activities reported significantly better mental health (d = 0.21) and higher achievement motivation (d = 0.17) than non-participants. Parallel mediation analyses revealed that basic psychological need satisfaction substantially mediated these relationships, with direct effects becoming non-significant after accounting for need satisfaction. Relatedness satisfaction most strongly mediated the effect of participation on mental health, whereas competence satisfaction primarily mediated the effect on achievement motivation. Autonomy satisfaction showed moderate mediation across both outcomes. Among participants, greater participation frequency predicted higher need satisfaction and better mental health, but not higher achievement motivation. Conclusions: Theme-based campus activity participation is associated with better student well-being and stronger motivation, with associations operating primarily through basic psychological need satisfaction. Relatedness experiences play a central role in promoting mental health, while competence experiences are key to fostering achievement motivation. These findings support the applicability of Self-Determination Theory in Chinese higher education contexts and highlight the importance of designing value-integrated, autonomy-supportive programs that meet students' psychological needs.
Keywords: achievement motivation, Basic psychological needs, Mediation, Mental Health, self-determination theory, theme-based activities
Received: 17 Nov 2025; Accepted: 03 Feb 2026.
Copyright: © 2026 Gu, Wang and Ji. 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: Zizhen Gu
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