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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Psychol.
Sec. Sport Psychology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1541211
This article is part of the Research Topic Physical Activity Applied to Learning and Psycho-social Variables in Young People View all 9 articles

The Relationship Between Physical Activity and Career Decision-Making Self-Efficacy in Chinese College Students: The Mediating Roles of Self-Control and Social Anxiety

Provisionally accepted
Yuan Fang Yuan Fang 1*Tingting Xu Tingting Xu 1Maosheng Ye Maosheng Ye 2Changquan Li Changquan Li 1
  • 1 Qiannan Normal College For Nationalities, Duyun, China
  • 2 China University of Mining and Technology, Beijing, Beijing, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Objectives: Enhancing career decision-making self-efficacy is an effective approach to improving university graduates' employment quality and speed. This study aims to explore the relationships among physical activity, career decision-making self-efficacy, self-control, and social anxiety to provide new perspectives and directions for enhancing university students' career decision-making self-efficacy.Methods: Within the framework of this research endeavor, a cohort of 1,955 university students (N = 1,955) from 14 universities distributed throughout China was surveyed. The initial data was entered and stored by means of Microsoft Excel. Subsequently, SPSS version 26.0 was employed to execute a comprehensive set of statistical analyses on the data, including descriptive statistics, a normality test, a reliability test, an exploratory factor analysis (aimed at addressing common method bias), a correlation test, and a regression analysis. In the present study, a structural equation model was formulated via the utilization of AMOS 24.0 software, and the Bootstrap approach was implemented. A total of 5000 samples were randomly drawn for the purpose of validating the research hypotheses, with the determination being based on whether the 95% confidence interval encompassed the value of 0.(1) Physical activity was found to positively predict career decision-making self-efficacy, as evidenced by (Estimate = 0.590, p < 0.001). (2) Self-control was demonstrated to play a mediating role in the connection between physical activity and career decision-making self-efficacy, with the effect indicated by [Estimate = 0.075, 95%CI(0.042, 0.113)]. (3) Social anxiety was likewise shown to assume a mediating role within the relationship between physical activity and career decisionmaking self-efficacy, as manifested by [Estimate = 0.009, 95%CI(0.002, 0.020)]. (4) A chain mediating effect was observed between physical activity and career decision-making self-efficacy for the combination of self-control and social anxiety, with [Estimate = 0.032, 95%CI(0.008, 0.057)].These findings provided significant theoretical support for physical activity as an effective means to enhance university students' career decision-making self-efficacy and offered references for designing sports activity programs. Furthermore, this study offered new perspectives and directions for understanding and enhancing university students' career decision-making selfefficacy.

    Keywords: physical activity1, Career Decision-Making Self-Efficacy2, self-control3, social anxiety4, Mediating5

    Received: 07 Dec 2024; Accepted: 06 Jan 2025.

    Copyright: © 2025 Fang, Xu, Ye and Li. 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: Yuan Fang, Qiannan Normal College For Nationalities, Duyun, China

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.