Effects Of Physical Exercise On Academic Burnout In College Students:The Mediating Role Of Self-efficacy And Resilience

Background: College students are the backbone of future social development,and their good study status is very important for their own development and the future construction of our country.However,more and more college students are troubled by academic burnout,which brings hidden dangers to the healthy development of school education and social employment.Although,in recent years,many studies have concluded that physical exercise may become an important means to alleviate academic burnout among college students,and that self-efficacy and mental resilience may be closely related to physical exercise and academic burnout,the potential mechanisms of physical exercise affecting academic burnout need to be further explored.Purposes: This study aimed to investigate the status of physical exercise,academic burnout,self-efficacy and mental resilience among college students,to understand the characteristics of academic burnout among college students with different levels of physical exercise,and to construct a mediation model based on exploring the correlation between the four,to examine the mediating role of college students’ self-efficacy and mental resilience between their physical exercise and academic burnout,in order to investigate the mechanism of the influence of physical exercise on college students’ academic burnout.Methods: The literature method was used to sort out related studies and construct a theoretical model;a cross-sectional research design was used to recruit 1270non-sports undergraduate students from two Chongqing universities by questionnaire survey,and the Physical Education Rating Scale(PARS-3),College Student Burnout Scale,General Self-Efficacy Scale(GSES)and Conner-Davidson Resilience Scale(CD-RISC)were selected to form a complete questionnaire.All data were analyzed using SPSS 26.0 and Process 3.5.Harman-s one-way analysis of variance was adopted to test for common method bias,kurtosis and skewness indices were used to assess data normality,and independent samples t-test,one-way analysis of variance,Pearson correlation analysis,Process’ s mediation model test were used in the analysis of relationships among variables.Results:(1)The overall physical exercise score of college students was 21.76±22.06,the physical exercise level of male college students was significantly higher than that of female college students(P<0.001),the physical exercise level of college students majoring in humanities and social sciences was significantly higher than that of college students majoring in natural sciences(P<0.05),the physical exercise level of college students from rural areas was significantly higher than that of college students from urban areas(P<0.001),and the physical exercise level of college students in different(P< 0.001),the physical exercise level of college students in different grades was significantly different(P < 0.001),the physical exercise level of first-year students was the lowest,and the physical exercise level of fourth-year students was the highest.(2)The overall score of self-efficacy of college students was 28.76 ± 5.21,and the self-efficacy of male college students was significantly higher than that of female college students(p < 0.001).There were no significant differences in the self-efficacy of college students of different majors,places of birth and grades.(3)The overall score of mental resilience of college students was 93.07 ± 15.03,and the resilience of male college students was significantly higher than that of female college students(p < 0.001).There was no significant difference in the resilience of college students of different majors,places of origin,and grades.(4)The overall score of academic burnout among college students was54.58±11.96,the detection rate of academic burnout was 41.81%.There was no significant difference in academic burnout among college students of different majors,places of origin and grades.(5)Academic burnout was significantly lower among college students with high physical exercise levels than among college students with medium and low physical exercise levels(p < 0.001).(6)There were a two-way significant correlation between physical exercise,self-efficacy,resilience,and academic burnout among college students(p < 0.01).Physical exercise significantly and negatively predicted college students’ academic burnout(β=-0.247,95%CI=[-0.162,-0.106]).Self-efficacy mediated the effect of physical exercise on college students’ academic burnout(β=-0.191,95%CI=[-0.226,-0.158]).Resilience mediated the effect of physical exercise on academic burnout among college students(β=-0.161,95% CI=[-0.163,-0.103]).Self-efficacy and resilience play a chain mediating role in the effect of physical exercise on academic burnout among college students(β=-0.075,95% CI=[-0.103,-0.048]).Conclusions:(1)The level of physical exercise and academic burnout of college students is moderate,and nearly half of college students are at risk of academic burnout.(2)College students with high levels of physical exercise have lower academic burnout than those with moderate levels of physical exercise,and students with low levels of physical exercise have the most severe academic burnout.(3)College students’ academic burnout was significantly and negatively associated with physical exercise,self-efficacy,and resilience.Physical exercise is significantly and positively related to self-efficacy and resilience among college students.Self-efficacy is significantly and positively related to resilience among college students.(4)Physical exercise,self-efficacy,and resilience of college students can negatively predict their academic burnout.Self-efficacy and resilience play a mediating role in the effect of physical exercise on academic burnout,and the mediating pathways include: physical exercise → self-efficacy → academic burnout,physical exercise →resilience → academic burnout,and physical exercise → self-efficacy → resilience →academic burnout.