The Effect Of Physical Exercise On Mental Toughness Of College Students: The Role Of Self-efficacy And Social Support

In recent years,college students suffer from frequent mental health problems,and mental toughness is generally regarded as an effective buffer for daily pressure or difficulties,which can enable individuals to have higher expectations for their own challenges and seek more social support to help them complete challenging tasks.Therefore,it is of great significance to explore the mechanism of physical exercise’s influence on mental toughness.Therefore,in order to fully understand the relationship between physical exercise and mental toughness,this study fully analyzes the relationship between physical exercise and mental toughness of college students.By constructing an intermediary model,it can not only explore the relationship between physical exercise and mental toughness,but also examine the mediating role of other two elements,namely social support and self-efficacy.In this study,questionnaires were used to conduct a horizontal survey of college students in Jiangxi Province to explore the characteristics and relationships among college students of different genders,different places of origin,non-single child and family types in terms of physical exercise,self-efficacy,social support and mental toughness.The results were as follows:1.College students’ physical exercise was at the medium level of physical exercise,and there was a significant gender difference in physical exercise(t=7.485,p< 0.01).2.The level of mental toughness of college students was above average,and the level of mental toughness of college students was in the aspect of gender(t=2.467,p<0.05)and whether they were only children(t=4.019,p<0.01)had a significant difference.3.College students’ self-efficacy was above average,and the total score of self-efficacy was gender(t=7.485,p<0.01)and whether they were only children(t=3.328,p<0.01),the difference was significant;4.College students’ social support was above average,and the dimensions of social support were: friend support(t=-2,272,p<0.05)and other support(t=-2.165,p<0.05)were significantly different in gender.Family support(t=2.790,p<0.01)have significant difference in whether they were the only child5.The variables of physical exercise,mental toughness,self-efficacy and social support of college students were significantly positively correlated.6.The self-efficacy variables of college students played a mediating role between physical exercise and mental toughness,which indicates that physical exercise could either directly predict mental toughness or independently influence mental toughness through the mediating role of self-efficacy.The variable of social support has a mediating effect on the influence of physical exercise and mental toughness,that was,physical exercise could directly predict mental toughness,or it could influence mental toughness through the mediating effect of social support variables alone.