Abstract
Objective: To explore the impact of exercise self-efficacy on college students’ emotion management ability and to analyze the mediating effects of exercise behavior and screen media use between exercise self-efficacy and emotion management ability.
Methods: This study adopted stratified, whole-cluster, and staged sampling methods, using an online questionnaire that included demographic information, exercise self-efficacy, exercise behavior, screen media use, and other relevant aspects, obtaining a total of 11,227 valid questionnaires.
Results: The study indicated a significant positive correlation between exercise self-efficacy and emotionmanagement ability (r=0.348, P<0.01). There was also a positive correlation between physical exercise and emotion management ability (r=0.136, P<0.01). In contrast, smartphone use showed a significant negative correlation with emotion management ability (r=-0.114, P<0.01). Additionally, exercise persistence and electronic health literacy presented significant positive correlations with emotion management ability (r=0.365, 0.500). Chain mediated effect analysis revealed that exercise self-efficacy positively affected emotion management ability by reducing smartphone use and enhancing exercise persistence (95% CI: [0.001, 0.002]). Furthermore, exercise self-efficacy positively affected emotion management ability by enhancing both exercise persistence and exercise self-efficacy (95% CI: [0.028, 0.042]). These two chain mediators revealed the pathways through which they affect emotion management ability.
Conclusion: This study deepened the understanding of the interplay between exercise behavior, screen media use, and emotion management ability. It suggested that emotion management ability could be enhanced through strategies of improving exercise persistence, physical exercise, electronic health literacy, and reducing smartphone use, while considering differences in gender and academic year in intervention programs.