University physical education course experience and resilience-based psychological recovery capacity among students in Chinese higher education: indirect associations through emotion regulation, exercise self-efficacy, and peer connectedness
- 1School of Physical Education, Hubei University of Arts and Science , , ,
- 2School of Health Management, Xianning Vocational Technical College , , ,
Abstract
University students face increasing psychological pressure, yet formal mental health services often remain limited in reach and depend on active help-seeking. This study examines university physical education (PE) as an educational context whose perceived qualities may be associated with psychological resources relevant to adaptation under stress. Using cross-sectional survey data from 831 Chinese college students, we examined whether perceived PE course experience was associated with resilience-based psychological recovery capacity and whether this association was indirectly linked through emotion regulation, exercise self-efficacy, and peer connectedness. The retained measurement specification represented PE course experience as a second-order construct comprising teacher support, mastery climate, embodied engagement, emotional release, and peer interaction. Structural equation modeling indicated that PE course experience was positively associated with resilience-based psychological recovery capacity and with all three proposed indirect-linking variables. Bootstrapping results supported significant indirect associations through emotion regulation, exercise self-efficacy, and peer connectedness, with exercise self-efficacy showing the largest estimated indirect association. The association remained significant after controlling for perceived stress and extracurricular exercise frequency. These findings link perceived PE course qualities with resilience-based adaptive capacity, conditional on the measured covariates. They do not isolate curriculum effects from physical-activity exposure. Because the design is cross-sectional, the findings should be interpreted as theoretically grounded associations rather than causal effects.
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BibTeX
@article{yang2026university,
title = {{University physical education course experience and resilience-based psychological recovery capacity among students in Chinese higher education: indirect associations through emotion regulation, exercise self-efficacy, and peer connectedness}},
author = {Wendong Yang and Liangfang Meng},
journal = {Frontiers in psychology},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.3389/fpsyg.2026.1908934},
url = {https://europepmc.org/article/PMC/PMC13716775},
note = {CC BY},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - University physical education course experience and resilience-based psychological recovery capacity among students in Chinese higher education: indirect associations through emotion regulation, exercise self-efficacy, and peer connectedness
AU - Wendong Yang
AU - Liangfang Meng
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/15
JO - Frontiers in psychology
DO - 10.3389/fpsyg.2026.1908934
UR - https://europepmc.org/article/PMC/PMC13716775
AB - University students face increasing psychological pressure, yet formal mental health services often remain limited in reach and depend on active help-seeking. This study examines university physical education (PE) as an educational context whose perceived qualities may be associated with psychological resources relevant to adaptation under stress. Using cross-sectional survey data from 831 Chinese college students, we examined whether perceived PE course experience was associated with resilience-based psychological recovery capacity and whether this association was indirectly linked through emotion regulation, exercise self-efficacy, and peer connectedness. The retained measurement specification represented PE course experience as a second-order construct comprising teacher support, mastery climate, embodied engagement, emotional release, and peer interaction. Structural equation modeling indicated that PE course experience was positively associated with resilience-based psychological recovery capacity and with all three proposed indirect-linking variables. Bootstrapping results supported significant indirect associations through emotion regulation, exercise self-efficacy, and peer connectedness, with exercise self-efficacy showing the largest estimated indirect association. The association remained significant after controlling for perceived stress and extracurricular exercise frequency. These findings link perceived PE course qualities with resilience-based adaptive capacity, conditional on the measured covariates. They do not isolate curriculum effects from physical-activity exposure. Because the design is cross-sectional, the findings should be interpreted as theoretically grounded associations rather than causal effects.
SN - 1664-1078
ER -