Motivation
Does exercise relate to college students’ academic engagement?
Open access · cc by · source: Europe PMC
Among 1,596 non-PE students, exercise correlated modestly with academic engagement (r=0.207) and self-efficacy (r=0.218); self-efficacy strongly tracked engagement (r=0.811) and mediated ~85% of the exercise–engagement link.
How this study connects
Role on claims
Each row is a claim on a concept or method page where this paper supports, challenges, or qualifies the statement. Roles are hand-checked — not a model guess.
Three independent samples put the effect in the mediator — which is also what shared-method variance produces.
Engagement models consistently place most of the effect in indirect paths. Leader tolerance predicted engagement (β = 0.377) with perceived organisational support and identification jointly mediating; teacher support reached engagement mostly through intrinsic motivation (indirect β = 0.225, 39.8% of total, against a direct 0.173); and exercise reached academic engagement almost entirely through self-efficacy (84% of the total effect).
Evidence for the claim as stated.
The mediation studies and the longitudinal study support different kinds of claim. Cross-sectional self-report models report large indirect effects and cannot exclude reverse paths or common-method bias, which their own authors state; the exercise study measured dropout over time and found the motive that predicted adherence was not the one that predicts enjoyment.
Evidence for the claim as stated.
Open questions
Tensions this paper is part of
From concept pages' “where studies disagree.” Disagreement means the same question; scope means different assays, populations, or outcomes.
The mediation studies and the longitudinal study support different kinds of claim. Cross-sectional self-report models report large indirect effects and cannot exclude reverse paths or common-method bias, which their own authors state; the exercise study measured dropout over time and found the motive that predicted adherence was not the one that predicts enjoyment.
Study at a glance
- Design
- Cross-sectional — Stratified random survey of non-PE college students; PARS-3, UWES, GSES; ANOVA, correlation, regression, mediation
- N
- N=1596 · 1,596 valid questionnaires from non-physical-education college students (Fuzhou-limited sample)
- Population
- Non-physical-education college students
- Outcome
- Associations among physical exercise, academic engagement, and self-efficacy (mediation)
Structured fields used in claim comparison tables when every cited study has a complete layer.
Inspect source passages
Does exercise relate to college students’ academic engagement?
These passages occur verbatim in the stored paper text. They support the points listed below; they do not verify every statement in the explanation.
1,596 valid questionnaires were analyzed.
A total of 1,596 valid questionnaires were analyzed.
Exercise–engagement r=0.207; exercise–self-efficacy r=0.218; engagement–self-efficacy r=0.811.
Physical exercise behavior among non-physical education students showed significant positive correlations with academic engagement ( r = 0.207, p < 0.01) and self-efficacy ( r = 0.218, p < 0.01).
Key findings
Exercise correlated with engagement (r=0.207) and self-efficacy (r=0.218); engagement with self-efficacy r=0.811. Indirect effect via self-efficacy was 0.0133 (84–84.7% of total); direct effect 0.0025 (16%), both with CIs excluding zero — partial mediation.
Methodology
Used stratified random sampling and PARS-3, UWES, and GSES scales; analyzed 1,596 valid surveys with ANOVA, correlations, regression, and bootstrap mediation in SPSS/AMOS.
Limitations
Cross-sectional self-reports cannot prove exercise causes better studying; sample is Fuzhou university students, not PE majors, and common-method bias remains possible.
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Same topic cluster — not a recommendation engine.