Relationship Among Physical Activity, Self-efficacy and Subjective Well-being of the Elderly: A Cross-Sectional Study

Relationship Among Physical Activity, Self-efficacy and Subjective Well-being of the Elderly: A Cross-Sectional Study | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article Relationship Among Physical Activity, Self-efficacy and Subjective Well-being of the Elderly: A Cross-Sectional Study Yongsen Liu, Mufan Zhang, Kun Wang, Jiong Luo, Chen Hao This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-6893504/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Published Journal Publication published 14 Apr, 2026 Read the published version in BMC Psychology → Version 1 posted 12 You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Background With the increasing pressure of a global aging population, ensuring and improving the well-being of the elderly is directly related to social harmony and stability. In the field of exercise psychology, the relationship between physical activity and subjective well-being has attracted much attention, but research on the elderly group has been rarely reported. Therefore, the presented paper aims to investigate the effect of physical activity on the subjective well-being of the elderly and reveal the role of self-efficacy between physical activity and subjective well-being. Methods By means of Physical Activity Rating Scale (PARS-3), General Self-efficacy Scale (GSES), and Subjective Well-being Scale (SWS), a questionnaire survey was conducted among 780 elderly people in Chongqing, China. And the data were processed and analyzed by SPSS 21.0 and AMOS 21.0 statistical software. Results 1) Compared with females, elderly males possessed a higher amount of physical activity, self-efficacy and subjective well-being. There were significant differences in urban and rural areas and BMI for physical activity, which indicated that the old people in urban and the aged with normal BMI had higher amount of physical activity; 2) The amount of physical activity was positively correlated with self-efficacy (r = 0.41, P < 0.001) and subjective well-being (r = 0.29, P < 0.001), and self-efficacy was positively correlated with subjective well-being (r = 0.26, P < 0.001); 3) In the male model, physical activity exhibited a direct effect on subjective well-being ( ES = 0.20), and self-efficacy had a partial mediating effect between physical exercise and subjective well-being ( ES = 0.071); In the female model, physical activity had a direct effect on subjective well-being ( ES = 0.26), and self-efficacy played a partial mediating role in physical exercise and subjective well-being ( ES = 0.066). Conclusion For both the old male and female, actively participating in physical activity can not only directly improve their subjective well-being, but also indirectly promote their subjective well-being through the action of self-efficacy. the elderly physical activity self-efficacy subjective well-being mediating effect Figures Figure 1 Figure 2 1 Introduction In recent years, the aging of the population has become one of the main problems for all countries all over the world. As the most populous country in the world, China is also facing a severe problem of population aging. By the end of 2017, the population of China over 60 years old was about 240 million, accounting for 17.3% of the total population; the population over 65 years old was 158.31 million, accounting for 11.4% of the total population[ 1 ]. What’s more, the aging problem in China will be more and more serious in the future. Some scholars predicted that China’s aging population would rise to 330 million by 2025, and reach 460 million and 490 million by 2040 and 2050 respectively[ 2 ]. It can thus be deduced that the problem of social aging, apart from the issues of resources and environment, would become another major social problem in China in the 21st century, which may lead to the transformation of labor market structure[ 3 ]. Therefore, improving the quality of life and promoting physical and mental health of the aged are important measures to alleviate the problem of aging. As a comprehensive index reflecting one’s quality of life and mental health, subjective well-being mainly includes life satisfaction, positive emotion and negative emotion[ 4 , 5 ], and it is a complicated and multi-level mental status formed by the interaction of psychological factors such as need, cognition, emotion and external incentives[ 5 ]. Currently, with the transformation from a survival-based society to a development-oriented society, people exhibit higher expectations for the pursuit of a happy life, and gradually realize that improving the feeling of well-being is of great importance to promote the healthy development of their own. In the field of sports, the term “well-being” was frequently mentioned in the documents of national sports policy, and sports were regarded as an important basis for realizing national happiness[ 6 ]. In the meantime, with the development of exercise psychology, more and more studies have confirmed that subjective well-being would be positively affected by body activity or physical exercise[ 7 , 8 ], especially for the old people. It was also found that the aged who regularly participated in physical activities were more likely to enjoy the normal aging process than those who seldom or intermittently participated in physical activities[ 9 ]. Regular participation in sports activities, as a necessary condition for the elderly to lead a happy life[ 10 , 11 ], was positively correlated with life satisfaction and health of the elderly[ 12 ]. Park[ 13 ]reported that physical activity could predict the level of perceived life satisfaction, which involved the frequency, intensity and duration of physical activity. However, some studies believed that only the duration of sports activities had a positive impact on the life satisfaction of the elderly[ 14 ]. In general, physical activity is helpful to promote physical and mental health, self-confidence, and human communication, which would be conducive to improving the quality of life and eventually achieving a higher level of well-being[ 3 , 15 , 16 ]. Nevertheless, physical activity and subjective well-being are indices with the characteristics of being complicated and comprehensive, are there any variations with other factors or variables during the interaction between the two indexes? In the field of social psychology, Bandura[ 17 ] reported that self-efficacy could affect the physical and mental regulation system through the belief in self-processing stress ability, and thereby influence their physical and mental health. Moreover, it can predict and explain one’s behavior and the causes of motivation in certain special situations, and also act as a psychological power of self-regulation. Furthermore, it was reported that self-efficacy had a prominent positive predictive effect on subjective well-being, and there was a linear relationship between self-efficacy and individual mental health[ 18 , 19 ]. That is, self-efficacy could significantly positively predict the subjective well-being of the elderly, and the elderly with high self-efficacy were always at a higher level of mental health[ 20 ]. Besides, self-efficacy was able to help elderly patients with chronic diseases increase confidence in life and maintain a certain level of subjective well-being[ 21 ]. In addition, positive physical exercise was also considered to be correlated with self-efficacy[ 22 ]. In the previous studies, the positive benefits of physical exercise on adolescents’ self-efficacy have been extensively studied. For example, there was a significant correlation between physical exercise and college students’ self-efficacy, the higher the degree of physical exercise was, the higher the sports self-efficacy would be[ 23 ]. Zhao[ 24 ]demonstrated that the amount of physical activity would significantly enhance academic emotions and self-efficacy of high school students, and there were significant differences in self-efficacy among different intensities of activities. Thus, it can be deduced that self-efficacy may play a vital role between physical exercise and subjective well-being of the aged. Nevertheless, the corresponding influencing pathways and mechanisms remain to be further investigated. Although some studies have revealed the positive benefits of physical activity on the subjective well-being of different groups, the interaction between different factors has not been fully demonstrated yet for the reason that subjective well-being is a complicated psychological index involving many influencing factors. In the presented paper, the path structure model was established to investigate the main influencing factors of subjective well-being, and the mediating role of self-efficacy between physical activity and the subjective well-being of the elderly. Based on the above-mentioned, hypotheses were put forward as follows: H1) physical activity has a direct impact on the subjective well-being of the elderly; H2) physical activity has a direct impact on the self-efficacy of the elderly; H3) self-efficacy plays a mediating role between physical activity and subjective well-being. 2 Respondents and Methods 2.1 Respondents By the method of random sampling, 780 elderly people (ranging from 60 to 80 years old) were selected from 5 districts and counties of Chongqing, China, to conduct a questionnaire survey. In order to ensure the quality and reliability of the questionnaire, the precautions and requirements would be explained in detail, then the participants should complete the questionnaire according to their actual situation and the questionnaires would be collected on site. It should be noted that if the respondents can not complete the questionnaire independently (for example, someone is illiterate, presbyopia, etc., but with a clear mind), the investigators can dictate the contents of the questionnaire and fill in the questionnaire on their behalf according to the actual status. In this study, a total of 780 questionnaires were distributed, and 62 invalid questionnaires including unknown key information and incomplete filling were excluded. Finally, 718 valid questionnaires were obtained with an effective rate of 92.05%. The average age of the respondents was 69.91 ± 3.64 years. All respondents are required to sign informed consent before they fill in the questionnaires. 2.2 Research Methods 2.2.1 Questionnaire design and evaluation on reliability and validity 1) Physical Activity Rating Scale (PARS-3) The 3-question test method revised by Liang Deqing was adopted, that is, intensity of physical activity (what do you think of the intensity of participating in physical activity each time), exercise time (how many minutes do you participate in physical activity each time) and exercise frequency (how many physical activities do you take in one week). A Likert 5-point formula was employed for quantification, and the scores were signed as 1 to 5. Physical activity score = exercise intensity score×(exercise time score-1)×exercise frequency score, the score range is 0-100 points, and the participation level of physical exercise could be evaluated according to the score. The evaluation standards of activity amount are as follows: low exercise amount ≤ 19 points, medium exercise amount ≤ 20–42 points, large exercise amount ≥ 43 points. The test-retest reliability of the scale is high with the correlation coefficient (r) being 0.82. 2) General Self-Efficacy Scale (GSEs) The General Self-Efficacy Scale revised by Wang Caikang was adopted. It contains 10 questions (if I try my best, I can always solve the problem). The Likert 4-point scale was used for quantification, and the scores were signed as 1–4 respectively according to the option “disagree ~ quite agree”. The higher the score, the stronger the self-efficacy. A common factor was extracted after factor analysis, and the progressive contribution rate of one common factor reached 53.728% after direct oblique rotation. The overall Cronbach coefficient of the scale was 0.797 by the test of internal consistency. Verification results of the measurement model were as follows: x 2 /df = 2.19, RMSEA = 0.05, AGFI = 0.97, TLI = 0.98, CFI = 0.97, IFI = 0.99, GFI = 0.96. The results indicated that the scale possessed good reliability and validity (as shown in Table 1 ). 3) Subjective Well-being Scale (SWS) Subjective Well-being Scale consists of the life satisfaction and emotion scale. The Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS) compiled by Triandis[ 25 ] was used to measure the cognitive components of subjective well-being. The scale includes five items (for example, I am very satisfied with my life). 7 points were adopted to score, and 1–7 points corresponding to the option “completely disagree ~ completely agree”. The higher the score, the higher the life satisfaction. The overall Cronbach coefficient of the scale was 0.865 by the test of internal consistency. Verification results of measurement model were as follows: x 2 /df = 1.97, RMSEA = 0.04, AGFI = 0.95, TLI = 0.98, CFI = 0.97, IFI = 0.98, GFI = 0.96. The Positive and Negative Affect Scale (PANAS) revised by Qiu Lin was adopted to measure the emotional components of subjective well-being. The scale contains 18 items, and adopts a Likert 5-point scale for quantification. The scores were signed as 1–5 according to the option “none ~ very strong”, in which the negative emotion items were scored in reverse. After the factor analysis, two common factors were extracted, namely, positive emotion (a total of 9 items, such as “excited”. The higher the score, the more positive the emotion) and negative emotion (a total of 9 items, such as “angry”. The higher the score, the lower the negative emotion, which means the less negative). The progressive contribution rate of the two common factors reached 51.709% after direct oblique rotation. Through the test of internal consistency, the Cronbach coefficient of positive emotion and negative emotion were 0.878 and 0.841, respectively. Verification results of measurement model were as follows: x 2 /df = 2.31, RMSEA = 0.04, AGFI = 0.99, TLI = 0.97, CFI = 0.96, IFI = 0.98, GFI = 0.98. The results demonstrated that the scale exhibited good reliability and validity. Based on previous studies, the total score of subjective well-being was the sum of Z scores after reverse scoring of life satisfaction, positive emotion and negative emotion (as listed in Table 1 ). Table 1 Factor extraction and reliability analysis of three scales KMO and Bartlett Spherical Test dimension items Characteristic root Explained variance(%) Progressive explained variance(%) Coefficient of Cronbach's α Physical Activity Rating Scale KMO = 0.893 (P < 0.01) Amount of physical activity 3 2.936 57.168 57.168 0.824 General Self-Efficacy Scale KMO = 0.889 Self-efficacy 10 4.373 53.728 53.728 0.797 (P < 0.001) Subjective Well-being Scale KMO = 0.855 Life satisfaction 5 3.161 51.117 51.117 0.865 (P < 0.001) KMO = 0.872 Positive emotion 9 4.521 36.181 36.181 0.878 (P < 0.001) Negative emotion 9 2.793 15.528 51.709 0.841 Note: Z score = (original value- mean value) / standard deviation. 2.2.2 Mathematical Statistics In the presented work, SPSS 21.0 mathematical statistics software was employed to process and analyze the data, including descriptive analysis, exploratory factor analysis, Harman single factor test method, Pearson correlation analysis, etc. Moreover, AMOS 21.0 software was adopted to conduct confirmatory factor analysis and establish a structural equation model to explore the mediating effect. Significance levels of all investigated indicators were set to be 0.05 (α = 0.05). 3 Results 3.1 Common Method Biases Inspection Considering that this study is a horizontal investigation, Harman's single-factor test method was employed to investigate the common method biases[ 26 ] in order to minimize the impact of common method biases on the results. The results illustrated that there were 9 factors with characteristic roots more than 1 in all items, and the variation explained by the first factor was 29.27%, which was less than the critical standard of 40%. Thus, the common method biases did not cause serious problems in this study. 3.2 Analysis of Demographic Differences Based on the analysis of demographic differences, it can be found that 1) in terms of gender, the amount of physical activity (P < 0.01), self-efficacy (P < 0.05) and subjective well-being of men were significantly higher than those of women (P < 0.05); 2) in terms of registered residence, the physical activity of the elderly in urban areas was significantly higher than that in the rural elderly (P 0.05) and subjective well-being (P > 0.05). 3) In terms of BMI, the amount of physical activity of the elderly with “normal BMI” was significantly higher than those with “light BMI”. However, there was no significant difference in the amount of physical exercise between the elderly with “normal BMI” and those with “high BMI”. Besides, there was no significant difference in BMI between self-efficacy (P > 0.05) and subjective well-being (P > 0.05) ( as shown in Table 2 ). Table 2 Demographic differences of main variables(N = 718) Classification Amount of physical activity Self-efficacy Subjective well-being Gender male 29.08 ± 18.52 28.09 ± 11.71 0.31 ± 2.61 female 25.01 ± 15.05 26.32 ± 11.11 -0.15 ± 2.58 T 3.18 ** 2.06 * 2.37 * registered residence rural 25.60 ± 16.93 27.04 ± 12.05 -0.10 ± 2.60 town 28.49 ± 16.53 27.21 ± 10.52 0.26 ± 2.60 T 2.28 * 0.20 1.86 BMI light 25.42 ± 14.37 26.17 ± 10.75 -0.10 ± 2.55 normal 29.02 ± 19.02 28.29 ± 11.49 0.20 ± 2.65 heavy 25.05 ± 17.08 26.87 ± 13.31 0.17 ± 2.67 F 4.21 * 2.76 1.16 LSD normal>relatively light — — Note: * P < 0.05, ** P < 0.01。 3.3 Correlation analysis of physical activity amount, self-efficacy and subjective well-being of the elderly Pearson correlation analysis indicated that (as shown in Table 3 ), physical activity was significantly positively correlated with self-efficacy (r = 0.41, P < 0.001); Physical activity was significantly positively correlated with subjective well-being (r = 0.29, P < 0.001), life satisfaction (r = 0.27, P < 0.001), positive emotion (r = 0.26, P < 0.001) and negative emotion (r = 0.29, P < 0.001); Self efficacy was significantly positively correlated with subjective well-being (r = 0.26, P < 0.001), life satisfaction (r = 0.23, P < 0.001), positive emotion (r = 0.26, P < 0.001) and negative emotion (r = 0.25, P < 0.001). It can be concluded that the correlation coefficient among the main variables is significant, which provides a basis for the subsequent test of the mediating effect. Table 3 Correlation matrix among main variables(N = 718) M ± SD Physical activity Self-efficacy Subjective well-being Life satisfaction Positive emotion Negative emotion Physical activity 26.84 ± 16.81 1 Self-efficacy 27.12 ± 11.41 0.41 *** 1 Subjective well-being 0.06 ± 2.60 0.29 *** 0.26 *** 1 Life satisfaction 17.35 ± 8.07 0.27 *** 0.23 *** 0.92 *** 1 Positive emotion 25.61 ± 11.20 0.26 *** 0.26 *** 0.94 *** 0.79 *** 1 Negative emotion 25.97 ± 10.60 0.29 *** 0.25 *** 0.93 *** 0.77 *** 0.82 *** 1 Note: * P < 0.05, ** P < 0.01, *** P < 0.001 3.4 Mediating effect test of self-efficacy In order to investigate the relationship among physical activity, self-efficacy and subjective well-being of the elderly and reveal the mediating role of self-efficacy, Amos was used to establish a structural equation model of physical activity, self-efficacy and subjective well-being based on the mediating effect test process proposed by Wen Zhonglin[ 27 ]. (Fig. 1) The results indicated that physical activity could positively predict subjective well-being (β = 0.30, P < 0.001). When self-efficacy was added as a mediation variable, the model had good fitting, and the results were as follows: x 2 /df = 1.065, GFI = 0.99, CFI = 0.98, AGFI = 0.99, TLI = 0.97, IFI = 0.98, RMSEA = 0.01. Among them, the amount of physical activity had the ability to positively predict self-efficacy (β = 0.40, P < 0.001), self-efficacy could positively predict subjective well-being (β = 0.18, P < 0.001), while the path coefficient of physical activity on subjective well-being decreased from 0.30 to 0.23 (β = 0.23, P < 0.001), indicating that self-efficacy had a partial mediating effect with the mediating effect being 0.40×0.18 = 0.072 (as shown in Table 4 ). Table 4 Path weight coefficient statistics table(n = 835) Hypothesis Variable relationship Boot SE CR Direct effect Mediation effect H1 Physical activity→Subjective well-being 0.02 5.72 0.23 H2 Physical activity→Self-efficacy 0.02 11.86 0.40 H3 Self-efficacy→Subjective well-being 0.03 4.50 0.18 H4 Physical activity→Self-efficacy→Subjective well-being 0.072 At the same time, considering the significant gender differences in physical exercise, self-efficacy and subjective well-being of the elderly, male and female mediation models were constructed respectively in terms of gender (Fig. 2). For males (model 1), physical activity can positively predict subjective well-being(β = 0.27, P < 0.001). When self-efficacy was added as a mediating variable, the model had good fitting, the results were as follows: x 2 /df = 1.092, GFI = 0.99, CFI = 0.99, AGFI = 0.98, TLI = 0.99, IFI = 0.98, RMSEA = 0.02. Among them, the amount of physical activity can positively predict self-efficacy (β = 0.47, P < 0.001), self-efficacy can positively predict subjective well-being (β = 0.15, P < 0.05), while the path coefficient of physical exercise on subjective well-being decreased from 0.27 to 0.20 (β = 0.20, P < 0.01), indicating that self-efficacy had a partial mediating performance with the mediating effect being 0.47 × 0.15 = 0.071 (as listed in Table 5 ). For females (model 2), physical activity can positively predict subjective well-being (β1 = 0.33, P < 0.001). When self-efficacy was added as a mediating variable, the model had good fitting, and the results were as follows: x 2 /df = 0.938, GFI = 0.99, CFI = 1.00, AGFI = 0.98, TLI = 0.99, IFI = 0.99, RMSEA = 0.01. Among them, the amount of physical activity can positively predict self-efficacy (β = 0.33, P < 0.001), self-efficacy can positively predict subjective well-being (β = 0.20, P < 0.001), while the path coefficient of physical exercise on subjective well-being decreased from 0.33 to 0.26 (β = 0.26, P < 0.001), illustrating that self-efficacy had a partial mediating effect with the mediating effect being 0.33 × 0.20 = 0.066 ( as shown in Table 5 ). Table 5 Path weight coefficient statistics table(N = 835) Hypothesis Variable relationship Boot SE CR Direct effect Mediation effect H1 Physical activity→Subjective well-being 0.03(0.02) 3.15(5.02) 0.20(0.26) H2 Physical activity→Self-efficacy 0.03(0.04) 9.43(7.00) 0.47(0.33) H3 Self-efficacy→Subjective well-being 0.05(0.03) 2.31(3.94) 0.15(0.20) H4 Physical activity→Self-efficacy→Subjective well-being 0.071(0.066) Note: the data in parentheses means the data of the female population. 4 Discussion and Analysis 4.1 Difference analysis of physical activity, self-efficacy and subjective well-being of the elderly As can be seen from the presented study, there were significant demographic differences in the amount of physical activity of the elderly. From the perspective of gender, the amount of physical activity of males was significantly higher than that of women. The previous studies have demonstrated that strong and competitive sports were preferred by men. In contrast, women would like to participate in mild, antagonistic and less intense sports, so the amount of men’s physical activity was higher[ 28 ]. For the elderly, we speculated that this may be attributed to the allocation of leisure time and exercise willingness. The reason is that parents are busy working and don’t have enough time to take care of their children when they are young. However, women would often take the responsibility of looking after grandchildren after retirement, resulting in that them don’t having enough time or interest to participate in physical activity. From the perspective of BMI, the amount of physical activity of the aged with normal BMI was significantly higher than those with light BMI. Regular physical exercise was a critical condition to adjust BMI, and the BMI of people who often participate in exercise was higher than that of people who do not exercise[ 29 ]. Besides, taking exercise regularly can effectively enhance the content of muscle and skeletal muscle, so as to improve the level of BMI. From the perspective of registered residence, the amount of physical activity of the elderly in urban areas was significantly higher than that of the rural elderly. This may be due to the fact that the economic and living standards are higher for the elderly in the urban areas, and the sports facilities in towns are better installed as compared to those in the rural areas, which makes the elderly in the urban areas participate in physical exercise more conveniently. Furthermore, men’s self-efficacy was significantly higher than that of women among the elderly population. This is consistent with previous studies, that is, the self-efficacy of male elderly was higher than that of female elderly[ 30 ]. Wang Yali[ 31 ]reported that there were significant gender differences in the general self-efficacy of the rural elderly, and the general self-efficacy of women was lower. In addition, this study found that men’s subjective well-being was significantly higher than that of women. The research indicated that the subjective well-being of the elderly could be influenced by two major factors, including subjective factors and objective factors [ 5 ], and gender was one of the main influencing factors. In the elderly group, women’s subjective well-being has been proved to be significantly lower than that of men[ 32 ]. This may be caused by the influence of Chinese traditional culture, the retired men can be free from work and family, but the retired women still need to take care of the family[ 33 ]. Consequently, the male elderly had a higher sense of well-being. 4.2 Direct impact of physical activity on the subjective well-being of the elderly It could also be found that physical activity could significantly and directly predict the subjective well-being of the elderly. The higher the amount of physical exercise, the stronger the subjective well-being of men or women. Generally speaking, subjective well-being would increase with the improvement of subjective well-being when individuals had more positive emotions, fewer negative emotions[ 34 ], and higher life satisfaction. On the other hand, physical health is an important manifestation of the happiness of the elderly. If physical health cannot be maintained, the quality of life and life satisfaction of the elderly may be affected[ 35 ]. Studies have demonstrated that regular physical exercise cannot only promote physical health, but also has a prominent positive impact on people’s mental health, improving life satisfaction and quality of life[ 36 , 37 ]. Physical activity can induce the generation of positive emotions, improve life satisfaction, and produce positive benefits for participants’ well-being[ 38 , 39 ]. It should be pointed out that not any physical activity can improve the level of individual well-being, a certain amount or intensity of activity should be reached. For instance, Li Junlan[ 40 ]found that the amount of physical activity would significantly affect subjective well-being and psychological well-being. The greater the amount of physical exercise, the stronger the subjective well-being, and the ability to control good relationships and environment could also be greatly improved. Liu Mina[ 6 ]believed that participating in sports activities with others or adhering to appropriate sports for a long period could promote the positive experience of happiness and thereby significantly improve national happiness. Recently, a meta-analysis indicated that regular participation in sports activities was an effective way to facilitate the subjective well-being of the elderly[ 41 ]. In addition, the direct path coefficient of physical exercise affecting women’s subjective well-being and the significance level were higher compared to those of men. It can be seen that elderly women may be more likely to directly improve their level of well-being through active physical activity, which may be caused by physiological, psychological and other factors. Further investigation should be performed to clarify the causes. Luo Xinghua[ 42 ]pointed out that different exercise cycles would influence the mental health and quality of life of female elderly people to different degrees, and obvious benefits could be obtained by long-term exercise. 4.3 The Mediating effect of self-efficacy between physical activity and subjective well-being Through the mediating effect inspection of the structural equation model, it was found that self-efficacy played a partial mediating role between physical exercise and the subjective well-being of the elderly. And the mediating effect of the male model was 0.071, while that of the female model was 0.066. This indicated that physical exercise can not only directly affect the subjective well-being of male or female elderly people, but also indirectly affect the subjective well-being with the help of the mediating effect of self-efficacy. The previous studies indicated that physical exercise played an important role in improving self-efficacy[ 8 , 43 ], and one’s self-efficacy would change positively after vigorous running or cycling[ 44 ]. In the youth group, physical activity had a significant positive correlation with self-efficacy. The higher the degree of physical exercise, the stronger the self-efficacy of college students[ 22 ]. And there were significant differences in the self-efficacy of adolescents with different intensities of exercise[ 45 ]. Gao Xu[ 46 ]found that active physical exercise could improve the general self-efficacy of middle-aged and elderly people, so as to improve cognitive function. Similarly, self-efficacy could positively predict one’s subjective well-being[ 20 , 47 ]. People with high self-efficacy usually had more confidence in life and maintained a certain level of subjective well-being, that is, self-efficacy could significantly and positively predict the subjective well-being of the elderly[ 21 , 48 ], and similar findings were also demonstrated by Meng Hui[ 18 ].On the contrary, people with low self-efficacy often doubted their ability, they were more prone to relax or give up, and had relatively more negative emotional experiences when facing difficulties[ 49 ]. Interestingly, researchers have found that there was a close relationship among physical activity, self-efficacy and subjective well-being of the elderly. Positive physical activity could promote the self-efficacy of the elderly, while high self-efficacy could effectively improve individual happiness perception experience such as life satisfaction and quality of life[ 50 , 51 ]. The results suggested that regularly participating in physical activity can improve their self-efficacy and indirectly improve their subjective well-being[ 41 ]for both men and women, that is, self-efficacy played a mediating role between physical exercise and subjective well-being, and there was no significant gender difference in mediating effect. 4.4 Limitations and prospects In the presented study, a structural equation model was employed to explore the relationship among physical exercise, self-efficacy and subjective well-being of the elderly of different genders. Moreover, the mediating role of self-efficacy between physical exercise and subjective well-being was revealed, and a theoretical basis and reference were provided for the idea of “sports promote happiness”. However, the following limitations were included in the study: the results of this study tended to be subjective through cross-sectional investigation, and a deeper causal relationship could not be obtained. Longitudinal empirical research should be incorporated into future research to better reveal the causal relationship among the different variables. In addition, the study focuses on the relationship among three factors, namely, physical activity, self-efficacy and subjective well-being of the elderly. More mediating or regulatory variables should be further investigated to deeply reveal the internal mechanism of physical exercise affecting the subjective well-being of the elderly. 5 Conclusion Based on the above analysis, the following conclusion can be drawn: 1) The amount of physical activity, self-efficacy and subjective well-being of elderly men were significantly higher than those of women; the amount of physical activity of urban elderly was significantly higher than that of rural elderly; and the amount of physical activity of the elderly with “normal BMI” was significantly higher than those with “light BMI”; 2) In the elderly group, the amount of physical activity had a significant positive correlation with self-efficacy and subjective well-being, and there was a significant positive correlation between self-efficacy and subjective well-being; 3) For both males and females, physical activity had a direct effect on the subjective well-being of the elderly, and self-efficacy played a partial mediating role between physical exercise and subjective well-being. Abbreviations PARS 3 Physical Activity Rating Scale GSES General Self Efficacy Scale SWS Subjective Well being Scale Declarations Ethics approval and consent to participate This study was approved by the Ethics Committee of the College of Physical Education, Southwest University, Chongqing (Approval No. SWU-TY202106). All procedures were performed in accordance with the ethical standards of the World Medical Association’s Declaration of Helsinki. Written informed consent was obtained from all participants prior to their inclusion in the study. Consent for publication Not applicable. Competing interests The authors declare no competing interests. Funding Not applicable. Author Contribution Conceptualization: YL, MF, KW, JL, CH; Methodology: YL, MF, KW, CH; Data gathering: YL, MF, KW; Writing—original draft preparation: YL, MF, KW, JL; Writing—review and editing: YL, MF, JL, CH. All authors read and approved the final manuscript. Acknowledgement The authors extend their gratitude to all the older adults and staff who participated in this study. Data Availability The datasets are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request for research purposes. References Statistical Communiqué of the People’s Republic of China on the 2017 National Economic and Social Development. National Bureau of Statistics. 2018. https://www.stats.gov.cn/sj/zxfb/202302/t20230203_1899855.html . Accessed 29 May 2025. Chen Yanmei L, Zifeng L, Xiande HY. Trends and Projections of Population Aging and the Elderly Population in China (2015–2050). Chin J Social Med. 2018;35:480–3. Zheng Yuannan. Does Physical Exercise Affect Subjective Well-being in Older Adults? — An Empirical Study on Chinese Elderly Leisure Sports Participants. China Sport Sci Technol. 2019;55:32–40. Huang, Lamei, Li Hui. The Relationship Between Social Support and Subjective Well-being in College Students: The Mediating Role of Psychological Resilience. Soc Public Welf. 2024;:169–72. Da Huiming. Research on Subjective Well-being of Chinese Elderly Over the Past Decade: Review and Prospects. Chin J Gerontol. 2019;39:2288–94. Liu Mina. How Does Sports Make People Happy? — A Study on the Impact of Sports Participation on Subjective Well-being and Its Mechanisms. Sports Sci. 2016;37:27–39. Murphy P. Sport, physical activity and the establishment of health and wellbeing boards in nottingham and nottinghamshire. Manag Leis. 2014;19:92–104. Brand R, Timme S, Nosrat S. When pandemic hits: exercise frequency and subjective well-being during COVID-19 pandemic. Front Psychol. 2020;11. Gopinath B, Kifley A, Flood VM, Mitchell P. Physical activity as a determinant of successful aging over ten years. Sci Rep. 2018;8:10522. Silverstein M, Parker MG. Leisure activities and quality of life among the oldest old in Sweden. Res Aging. 2002;24:528–47. Sasidharan V, Payne,Laura O-S, Elizabeth, and, Godbey G. 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Zhao GR, Ju D, Ma L. Study on physical exercise amount’s influences on self-efficacy, learning emotion and learning performance of high school students. Educational Sci Res. 2019;:61–5. Triandis H. The shifting basis of life satisfaction judgments across cultures: emotions versus norms. J Pers Soc Psychol. 1998. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.74.2.482 . Podsakoff PM, MacKenzie SB, Lee J-Y, Podsakoff NP. Common method biases in behavioral research: a critical review of the literature and recommended remedies. J Appl Psychol. 2003;88:879–903. Wen Zhonglin Y, Baojuan. Mediation Effect Analysis: Methods and Model Development. Adv Psychol Sci. 2014;22:731–45. Asztalos M, Bourdeaudhuij ID, Cardon G. The relationship between physical activity and mental health varies across activity intensity levels and dimensions of mental health among women and men. Public Health Nutr. 2010;13:1207–14. Du Yawen F, Jiacheng D, Zhonglin. A Correlational Study on Physical Exercise, BMI, and Physical Fitness Status Among Adults and Older Adults in Hubei Province. China Sport Sci Technol. 2007;:107–10. Zhou Xiaoli. Correlation Between Loneliness and Self-Efficacy in Elderly Patients with Chronic Diseases in Community Settings. China J Health Psychol. 2014;22:247–9. Wang Yali X, Yu Z, Lu JL, Xiang J, Li Y, et al. Correlates of General Self-Efficacy Among Rural Elderly in Shandong Province. Chin Mental Health J. 2020;34:423–30. Li Deming C, Tianyong W. Zhenyun. Subjective Well-being and Its Influencing Factors Among Elderly Women in China. Chin J Gerontol. 2007;:778–80. Hongwei H, Min G. Influencing Factors and Improvement Pathways of Subjective Well-being in Older Adults: Based on a Survey of Living Conditions Among Urban and Rural Elderly in China. J Jiangsu Univ (Social Sci Edition). 2013;15:48–54. Cao Rui L. Fang, Zhang Haixia. From Subjective Well-being to Psychological Well-being and Social Well-being: New Perspectives in Positive Psychology Research. J Tianjin Acad Educational Sci. 2013;:68–70. Rejeski WJ, Mihalko SL. Physical activity and quality of life in older adults. The Journals of Gerontology Series A: Biological sciences and medical sciences. 2001;56(suppl_2):23–35. Dean A, Kolody B, Wood P. Effects of social support from various sources on depression in elderly persons. J Health Soc Behav. 1990;31:148–61. Suzuki Y, Maeda N, Hirado D, Shirakawa T, Urabe Y. Physical activity changes and its risk factors among community-dwelling japanese older adults during the COVID-19 epidemic: associations with subjective well-being and health-related quality of life. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2020;17:6591. Richards J, Jiang X, Kelly P, Chau J, Bauman A, Ding D. Don’t worry, be happy: cross-sectional associations between physical activity and happiness in 15 european countries. BMC Public Health. 2015;15:53. Lathia N, Sandstrom GM, Mascolo C, Rentfrow PJ. Happier people live more active lives: using smartphones to link happiness and physical activity. PLoS ONE. 2017;12:e0160589. Li Junlan L, Wen. A Study on the Dual Effects of Physical Exercise on Subjective Well-being and Psychological Well-being. Theory Pract Educ. 2014;34:37–9. Won D, Bae J, Byun H, Seo K. Enhancing subjective well-being through physical activity for the elderly in korea: a meta-analysis approach. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2020;17:262. Xinghua L, Kunming C, Xianming T. The Impact of 24-Form Tai Chi on Elderly Women’s Health: A Study on Mental Health and Quality of Life Across Different Exercise Durations. J Guangzhou Sport Univ. 2008;:68–71. Higgins TJ, Middleton KR, Winner L, Janelle CM. Physical activity interventions differentially affect exercise task and barrier self-efficacy: a meta-analysis. Health Psychol. 2014;33:891–903. McAuley E, Bane SM, Rudolph DL, Lox CL. Physique anxiety and exercise in middle-aged adults. J Gerontol: B. 1995;50B:P229–35. Zhao Gerui J, Dong M, Li. The Impact of Physical Exercise Volume on Self-Efficacy, Academic Emotions, and Academic Performance Among High School Freshmen. Educational Sci Res. 2019;:61–5. Gao Xu C. The Positive Effects of Physical Exercise on Cognitive Function in Middle-aged and Older Adults: Testing the Mediation Models of Aging Attitudes and General Self-Efficacy. J Shenyang Sport Univ. 2015;34:7–12. Shen Zhengfu Y, Xiumu S, Xueqin H, Qinggong HB. The Influence of Personality Traits and General Self-Efficacy on Subjective Well-being Among College Students. Chin J Clin Psychol. 2013;21:303–5. Gao Fengjian C, Youguo L, Peiduo J, Zhu H, Xiting. Dominance Analysis of Psychological Resilience, Loneliness, and Self-Efficacy in Predicting Subjective Well-being Among the Elderly. Stud Psychol Behav. 2017;15:227–32. Liu, Yang. A Study on the Relationship Between Subjective Well-being and Self-efficacy Among College Students. China J Health Psychol. 2011;19:1250–1. McAuley E, Konopack JF, Motl RW, Morris KS, Doerksen SE, Rosengren KR. Physical activity and quality of life in older adults: influence of health status and self-efficacy. Ann Behav Med. 2006;31:99–103. Dai Qun, Yao Jiaxin. The Relationship Between Physical Exercise and Life Satisfaction in Older Adults: The Mediating Roles of Self-Efficacy, Social Support, and Self-Esteem. J Beijing Sport Univ. 2012;35:67–72. Additional Declarations No competing interests reported. Cite Share Download PDF Status: Published Journal Publication published 14 Apr, 2026 Read the published version in BMC Psychology → Version 1 posted Editorial decision: Revision requested 24 Sep, 2025 Reviewers agreed at journal 18 Aug, 2025 Reviews received at journal 03 Aug, 2025 Reviewers agreed at journal 31 Jul, 2025 Reviews received at journal 28 Jul, 2025 Reviewers agreed at journal 25 Jul, 2025 Reviewers agreed at journal 23 Jul, 2025 Reviewers invited by journal 23 Jul, 2025 Editor assigned by journal 16 Jul, 2025 Editor invited by journal 30 Jun, 2025 Submission checks completed at journal 27 Jun, 2025 First submitted to journal 27 Jun, 2025 You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. 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Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-6893504","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Research Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":489739053,"identity":"77b655b0-e807-454d-b540-60352fb6c910","order_by":0,"name":"Yongsen Liu","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Southwest University","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Yongsen","middleName":"","lastName":"Liu","suffix":""},{"id":489739055,"identity":"354d89ad-ce01-4cbf-bc19-b5c63c327ed8","order_by":1,"name":"Mufan Zhang","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Southwest University","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Mufan","middleName":"","lastName":"Zhang","suffix":""},{"id":489739058,"identity":"b94c0436-e572-4f40-80af-39bc42dd8342","order_by":2,"name":"Kun Wang","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Southwest University","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Kun","middleName":"","lastName":"Wang","suffix":""},{"id":489739060,"identity":"fdc2691a-5b1a-458d-bd66-97bd79b2f6b5","order_by":3,"name":"Jiong Luo","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Southwest University","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Jiong","middleName":"","lastName":"Luo","suffix":""},{"id":489739061,"identity":"d1178adc-35d7-41f5-9181-c528aab87107","order_by":4,"name":"Chen Hao","email":"data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAZAAAAAyAQMAAABI0h/eAAAABlBMVEX///8AAABVwtN+AAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAAAsUlEQVRIiWNgGAWjYBACAyBmZqiAcCRI0HKGZC2MbaRoMWc/fPBz4Tw72Q0HmA/e5mGwyyOoxbInLVl65rZk4w0H2JKteRiSiwk77ECOGTPvtgOJGw7wmEnzMBxIbCCo5fwboJY5IC3834jUcgNkSwPYFjZitTxLluY5lmw88zCbseUcg2RiHJZ88DNPjZ1s3/HmhzfeVNgR1gIDjA3MYBOIVQ/WQoLiUTAKRsEoGGEAAJ/5Oc5ChqrHAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC","orcid":"","institution":"Chongqing University","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"Chen","middleName":"","lastName":"Hao","suffix":""}],"badges":[],"createdAt":"2025-06-14 10:53:06","currentVersionCode":1,"declarations":"","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-6893504/v1","doiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-6893504/v1","draftVersion":[],"editorialEvents":[{"content":"https://doi.org/10.1186/s40359-026-04509-2","type":"published","date":"2026-04-14T15:58:20+00:00"}],"editorialNote":"","failedWorkflow":false,"files":[{"id":87563615,"identity":"c60a49ff-d415-46b5-8c74-25e7c938f65a","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-07-25 09:05:02","extension":"png","order_by":1,"title":"Figure 1","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"figure","size":136154,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"\u003cp\u003eMediation model of self-efficacy between physical activity and subjective well-being (Master model)\u003c/p\u003e","description":"","filename":"Figure1.png","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-6893504/v1/be45196338196452ea00bdca.png"},{"id":87563624,"identity":"51165601-3442-4223-99ea-bb70c4d098e8","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-07-25 09:05:02","extension":"png","order_by":2,"title":"Figure 2","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"figure","size":182180,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"\u003cp\u003eMediation model of self-efficacy between physical activity and subjective well-being (Model 1: Male model; Model 2: Female model)\u003c/p\u003e","description":"","filename":"Figure2.png","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-6893504/v1/4a01082dd24aa93f6dfd2d17.png"},{"id":107350764,"identity":"b0e788bb-2d1d-4770-a5b6-503b1ffd116e","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2026-04-20 16:03:40","extension":"pdf","order_by":0,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":876161,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"manuscript.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-6893504/v1/feb010ae-448f-4b9c-9ff0-4f37d2b25afa.pdf"}],"financialInterests":"No competing interests reported.","formattedTitle":"Relationship Among Physical Activity, Self-efficacy and Subjective Well-being of the Elderly: A Cross-Sectional Study","fulltext":[{"header":"1 Introduction","content":"\u003cp\u003eIn recent years, the aging of the population has become one of the main problems for all countries all over the world. As the most populous country in the world, China is also facing a severe problem of population aging. By the end of 2017, the population of China over 60 years old was about 240\u0026nbsp;million, accounting for 17.3% of the total population; the population over 65 years old was 158.31\u0026nbsp;million, accounting for 11.4% of the total population[\u003cspan citationid=\"CR1\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e1\u003c/span\u003e]. What\u0026rsquo;s more, the aging problem in China will be more and more serious in the future. Some scholars predicted that China\u0026rsquo;s aging population would rise to 330\u0026nbsp;million by 2025, and reach 460\u0026nbsp;million and 490\u0026nbsp;million by 2040 and 2050 respectively[\u003cspan citationid=\"CR2\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2\u003c/span\u003e]. It can thus be deduced that the problem of social aging, apart from the issues of resources and environment, would become another major social problem in China in the 21st century, which may lead to the transformation of labor market structure[\u003cspan citationid=\"CR3\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e3\u003c/span\u003e]. Therefore, improving the quality of life and promoting physical and mental health of the aged are important measures to alleviate the problem of aging.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAs a comprehensive index reflecting one\u0026rsquo;s quality of life and mental health, subjective well-being mainly includes life satisfaction, positive emotion and negative emotion[\u003cspan citationid=\"CR4\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e4\u003c/span\u003e, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR5\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e5\u003c/span\u003e], and it is a complicated and multi-level mental status formed by the interaction of psychological factors such as need, cognition, emotion and external incentives[\u003cspan citationid=\"CR5\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e5\u003c/span\u003e]. Currently, with the transformation from a survival-based society to a development-oriented society, people exhibit higher expectations for the pursuit of a happy life, and gradually realize that improving the feeling of well-being is of great importance to promote the healthy development of their own.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn the field of sports, the term \u0026ldquo;well-being\u0026rdquo; was frequently mentioned in the documents of national sports policy, and sports were regarded as an important basis for realizing national happiness[\u003cspan citationid=\"CR6\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e6\u003c/span\u003e]. In the meantime, with the development of exercise psychology, more and more studies have confirmed that subjective well-being would be positively affected by body activity or physical exercise[\u003cspan citationid=\"CR7\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e7\u003c/span\u003e, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR8\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e8\u003c/span\u003e], especially for the old people. It was also found that the aged who regularly participated in physical activities were more likely to enjoy the normal aging process than those who seldom or intermittently participated in physical activities[\u003cspan citationid=\"CR9\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e9\u003c/span\u003e]. Regular participation in sports activities, as a necessary condition for the elderly to lead a happy life[\u003cspan citationid=\"CR10\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e10\u003c/span\u003e, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR11\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e11\u003c/span\u003e], was positively correlated with life satisfaction and health of the elderly[\u003cspan citationid=\"CR12\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e12\u003c/span\u003e]. Park[\u003cspan citationid=\"CR13\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e13\u003c/span\u003e]reported that physical activity could predict the level of perceived life satisfaction, which involved the frequency, intensity and duration of physical activity. However, some studies believed that only the duration of sports activities had a positive impact on the life satisfaction of the elderly[\u003cspan citationid=\"CR14\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e14\u003c/span\u003e]. In general, physical activity is helpful to promote physical and mental health, self-confidence, and human communication, which would be conducive to improving the quality of life and eventually achieving a higher level of well-being[\u003cspan citationid=\"CR3\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e3\u003c/span\u003e, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR15\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e15\u003c/span\u003e, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR16\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e16\u003c/span\u003e]. Nevertheless, physical activity and subjective well-being are indices with the characteristics of being complicated and comprehensive, are there any variations with other factors or variables during the interaction between the two indexes?\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn the field of social psychology, Bandura[\u003cspan citationid=\"CR17\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e17\u003c/span\u003e] reported that self-efficacy could affect the physical and mental regulation system through the belief in self-processing stress ability, and thereby influence their physical and mental health. Moreover, it can predict and explain one\u0026rsquo;s behavior and the causes of motivation in certain special situations, and also act as a psychological power of self-regulation. Furthermore, it was reported that self-efficacy had a prominent positive predictive effect on subjective well-being, and there was a linear relationship between self-efficacy and individual mental health[\u003cspan citationid=\"CR18\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e18\u003c/span\u003e, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR19\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e19\u003c/span\u003e]. That is, self-efficacy could significantly positively predict the subjective well-being of the elderly, and the elderly with high self-efficacy were always at a higher level of mental health[\u003cspan citationid=\"CR20\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e20\u003c/span\u003e]. Besides, self-efficacy was able to help elderly patients with chronic diseases increase confidence in life and maintain a certain level of subjective well-being[\u003cspan citationid=\"CR21\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e21\u003c/span\u003e]. In addition, positive physical exercise was also considered to be correlated with self-efficacy[\u003cspan citationid=\"CR22\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e22\u003c/span\u003e]. In the previous studies, the positive benefits of physical exercise on adolescents\u0026rsquo; self-efficacy have been extensively studied. For example, there was a significant correlation between physical exercise and college students\u0026rsquo; self-efficacy, the higher the degree of physical exercise was, the higher the sports self-efficacy would be[\u003cspan citationid=\"CR23\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e23\u003c/span\u003e]. Zhao[\u003cspan citationid=\"CR24\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e24\u003c/span\u003e]demonstrated that the amount of physical activity would significantly enhance academic emotions and self-efficacy of high school students, and there were significant differences in self-efficacy among different intensities of activities. Thus, it can be deduced that self-efficacy may play a vital role between physical exercise and subjective well-being of the aged. Nevertheless, the corresponding influencing pathways and mechanisms remain to be further investigated.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAlthough some studies have revealed the positive benefits of physical activity on the subjective well-being of different groups, the interaction between different factors has not been fully demonstrated yet for the reason that subjective well-being is a complicated psychological index involving many influencing factors. In the presented paper, the path structure model was established to investigate the main influencing factors of subjective well-being, and the mediating role of self-efficacy between physical activity and the subjective well-being of the elderly. Based on the above-mentioned, hypotheses were put forward as follows: H1) physical activity has a direct impact on the subjective well-being of the elderly; H2) physical activity has a direct impact on the self-efficacy of the elderly; H3) self-efficacy plays a mediating role between physical activity and subjective well-being.\u003c/p\u003e"},{"header":"2 Respondents and Methods","content":"\u003cdiv id=\"Sec3\" class=\"Section2\"\u003e\u003ch2\u003e2.1 Respondents\u003c/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eBy the method of random sampling, 780 elderly people (ranging from 60 to 80 years old) were selected from 5 districts and counties of Chongqing, China, to conduct a questionnaire survey. In order to ensure the quality and reliability of the questionnaire, the precautions and requirements would be explained in detail, then the participants should complete the questionnaire according to their actual situation and the questionnaires would be collected on site. It should be noted that if the respondents can not complete the questionnaire independently (for example, someone is illiterate, presbyopia, etc., but with a clear mind), the investigators can dictate the contents of the questionnaire and fill in the questionnaire on their behalf according to the actual status. In this study, a total of 780 questionnaires were distributed, and 62 invalid questionnaires including unknown key information and incomplete filling were excluded. Finally, 718 valid questionnaires were obtained with an effective rate of 92.05%. The average age of the respondents was 69.91\u0026thinsp;\u0026plusmn;\u0026thinsp;3.64 years. All respondents are required to sign informed consent before they fill in the questionnaires.\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv id=\"Sec4\" class=\"Section2\"\u003e\u003ch2\u003e2.2 Research Methods\u003c/h2\u003e\u003cdiv id=\"Sec5\" class=\"Section3\"\u003e\u003ch2\u003e2.2.1 Questionnaire design and evaluation on reliability and validity\u003c/h2\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003e1) Physical Activity Rating Scale (PARS-3)\u003c/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe 3-question test method revised by Liang Deqing was adopted, that is, intensity of physical activity (what do you think of the intensity of participating in physical activity each time), exercise time (how many minutes do you participate in physical activity each time) and exercise frequency (how many physical activities do you take in one week). A Likert 5-point formula was employed for quantification, and the scores were signed as 1 to 5. Physical activity score\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;exercise intensity score\u0026times;(exercise time score-1)\u0026times;exercise frequency score, the score range is 0-100 points, and the participation level of physical exercise could be evaluated according to the score. The evaluation standards of activity amount are as follows: low exercise amount\u0026thinsp;\u0026le;\u0026thinsp;19 points, medium exercise amount\u0026thinsp;\u0026le;\u0026thinsp;20\u0026ndash;42 points, large exercise amount\u0026thinsp;\u0026ge;\u0026thinsp;43 points. The test-retest reliability of the scale is high with the correlation coefficient (r) being 0.82.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003e2) General Self-Efficacy Scale (GSEs)\u003c/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe General Self-Efficacy Scale revised by Wang Caikang was adopted. It contains 10 questions (if I try my best, I can always solve the problem). The Likert 4-point scale was used for quantification, and the scores were signed as 1\u0026ndash;4 respectively according to the option \u0026ldquo;disagree\u0026thinsp;~\u0026thinsp;quite agree\u0026rdquo;. The higher the score, the stronger the self-efficacy. A common factor was extracted after factor analysis, and the progressive contribution rate of one common factor reached 53.728% after direct oblique rotation. The overall Cronbach\u003cspan class=\"InlineEquation\"\u003e\u003c/span\u003ecoefficient of the scale was 0.797 by the test of internal consistency. Verification results of the measurement model were as follows: x\u003csup\u003e2\u003c/sup\u003e/df\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;2.19, RMSEA\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;0.05, AGFI\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;0.97, TLI\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;0.98, CFI\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;0.97, IFI\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;0.99, GFI\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;0.96. The results indicated that the scale possessed good reliability and validity (as shown in Table\u0026nbsp;\u003cspan refid=\"Tab1\" class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e1\u003c/span\u003e).\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003e3) Subjective Well-being Scale (SWS)\u003c/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSubjective Well-being Scale consists of the life satisfaction and emotion scale. The Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS) compiled by Triandis[\u003cspan citationid=\"CR25\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e25\u003c/span\u003e] was used to measure the cognitive components of subjective well-being. The scale includes five items (for example, I am very satisfied with my life). 7 points were adopted to score, and 1\u0026ndash;7 points corresponding to the option \u0026ldquo;completely disagree\u0026thinsp;~\u0026thinsp;completely agree\u0026rdquo;. The higher the score, the higher the life satisfaction. The overall Cronbach\u003cspan class=\"InlineEquation\"\u003e\u003c/span\u003ecoefficient of the scale was 0.865 by the test of internal consistency. Verification results of measurement model were as follows: x\u003csup\u003e2\u003c/sup\u003e/df\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;1.97, RMSEA\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;0.04, AGFI\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;0.95, TLI\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;0.98, CFI\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;0.97, IFI\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;0.98, GFI\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;0.96. The Positive and Negative Affect Scale (PANAS) revised by Qiu Lin was adopted to measure the emotional components of subjective well-being. The scale contains 18 items, and adopts a Likert 5-point scale for quantification. The scores were signed as 1\u0026ndash;5 according to the option \u0026ldquo;none\u0026thinsp;~\u0026thinsp;very strong\u0026rdquo;, in which the negative emotion items were scored in reverse. After the factor analysis, two common factors were extracted, namely, positive emotion (a total of 9 items, such as \u0026ldquo;excited\u0026rdquo;. The higher the score, the more positive the emotion) and negative emotion (a total of 9 items, such as \u0026ldquo;angry\u0026rdquo;. The higher the score, the lower the negative emotion, which means the less negative). The progressive contribution rate of the two common factors reached 51.709% after direct oblique rotation. Through the test of internal consistency, the Cronbach\u003cspan class=\"InlineEquation\"\u003e\u003c/span\u003ecoefficient of positive emotion and negative emotion were 0.878 and 0.841, respectively. Verification results of measurement model were as follows: x\u003csup\u003e2\u003c/sup\u003e/df\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;2.31, RMSEA\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;0.04, AGFI\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;0.99, TLI\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;0.97, CFI\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;0.96, IFI\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;0.98, GFI\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;0.98. The results demonstrated that the scale exhibited good reliability and validity. Based on previous studies, the total score of subjective well-being was the sum of Z scores after reverse scoring of life satisfaction, positive emotion and negative emotion (as listed in Table\u0026nbsp;\u003cspan refid=\"Tab1\" class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e1\u003c/span\u003e).\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"gridtable\"\u003e\u003ctable float=\"Yes\" id=\"Tab1\" border=\"1\"\u003e\u003ccaption language=\"En\"\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"CaptionNumber\"\u003eTable 1\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"CaptionContent\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eFactor extraction and reliability analysis of three scales\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003c/caption\u003e\u003ccolgroup cols=\"8\"\u003e\u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c1\" colnum=\"1\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c2\" colnum=\"2\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c3\" colnum=\"3\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c4\" colnum=\"4\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c5\" colnum=\"5\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c6\" colnum=\"6\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c7\" colnum=\"7\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c8\" colnum=\"8\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cthead\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/th\u003e\u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eKMO and Bartlett Spherical Test\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/th\u003e\u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003edimension\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/th\u003e\u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eitems\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/th\u003e\u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eCharacteristic root\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/th\u003e\u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eExplained variance(%)\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/th\u003e\u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eProgressive explained variance(%)\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/th\u003e\u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c8\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eCoefficient of Cronbach's α\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/th\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003c/thead\u003e\u003ctbody\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e\u003cp\u003ePhysical Activity Rating Scale\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eKMO\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;0.893\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e(P\u0026thinsp;\u0026lt;\u0026thinsp;0.01)\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eAmount of physical activity\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e3\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e2.936\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e57.168\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e57.168\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c8\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.824\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\" morerows=\"1\" rowspan=\"2\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eGeneral Self-Efficacy Scale\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eKMO\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;0.889\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\" morerows=\"1\" rowspan=\"2\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eSelf-efficacy\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\" morerows=\"1\" rowspan=\"2\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e10\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\" morerows=\"1\" rowspan=\"2\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e4.373\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c6\" morerows=\"1\" rowspan=\"2\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e53.728\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c7\" morerows=\"1\" rowspan=\"2\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e53.728\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c8\" morerows=\"1\" rowspan=\"2\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.797\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e(P\u0026thinsp;\u0026lt;\u0026thinsp;0.001)\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\" morerows=\"3\" rowspan=\"4\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eSubjective Well-being Scale\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eKMO\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;0.855\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\" morerows=\"1\" rowspan=\"2\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eLife satisfaction\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\" morerows=\"1\" rowspan=\"2\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e5\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\" morerows=\"1\" rowspan=\"2\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e3.161\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c6\" morerows=\"1\" rowspan=\"2\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e51.117\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c7\" morerows=\"1\" rowspan=\"2\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e51.117\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c8\" morerows=\"1\" rowspan=\"2\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.865\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e(P\u0026thinsp;\u0026lt;\u0026thinsp;0.001)\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eKMO\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;0.872\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003ePositive emotion\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e9\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e4.521\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e36.181\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e36.181\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c8\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.878\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e(P\u0026thinsp;\u0026lt;\u0026thinsp;0.001)\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eNegative emotion\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e9\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e2.793\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e15.528\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e51.709\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c8\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.841\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colspan=\"8\" nameend=\"c8\" namest=\"c1\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eNote: Z score = (original value- mean value) / standard deviation.\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003c/tbody\u003e\u003c/colgroup\u003e\u003c/table\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\u003cdiv id=\"Sec9\" class=\"Section2\"\u003e\u003ch2\u003e2.2.2 Mathematical Statistics\u003c/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn the presented work, SPSS 21.0 mathematical statistics software was employed to process and analyze the data, including descriptive analysis, exploratory factor analysis, Harman single factor test method, Pearson correlation analysis, etc. Moreover, AMOS 21.0 software was adopted to conduct confirmatory factor analysis and establish a structural equation model to explore the mediating effect. Significance levels of all investigated indicators were set to be 0.05 (α\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;0.05).\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/div\u003e"},{"header":"3 Results","content":"\u003cdiv id=\"Sec11\" class=\"Section2\"\u003e\u003ch2\u003e3.1 Common Method Biases Inspection\u003c/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eConsidering that this study is a horizontal investigation, Harman's single-factor test method was employed to investigate the common method biases[\u003cspan citationid=\"CR26\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e26\u003c/span\u003e] in order to minimize the impact of common method biases on the results. The results illustrated that there were 9 factors with characteristic roots more than 1 in all items, and the variation explained by the first factor was 29.27%, which was less than the critical standard of 40%. Thus, the common method biases did not cause serious problems in this study.\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv id=\"Sec12\" class=\"Section2\"\u003e\u003ch2\u003e3.2 Analysis of Demographic Differences\u003c/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eBased on the analysis of demographic differences, it can be found that 1) in terms of gender, the amount of physical activity (P\u0026thinsp;\u0026lt;\u0026thinsp;0.01), self-efficacy (P\u0026thinsp;\u0026lt;\u0026thinsp;0.05) and subjective well-being of men were significantly higher than those of women (P\u0026thinsp;\u0026lt;\u0026thinsp;0.05); 2) in terms of registered residence, the physical activity of the elderly in urban areas was significantly higher than that in the rural elderly (P\u0026thinsp;\u0026lt;\u0026thinsp;0.05), but there was no significant difference between self-efficacy (P\u0026thinsp;\u0026gt;\u0026thinsp;0.05) and subjective well-being (P\u0026thinsp;\u0026gt;\u0026thinsp;0.05). 3) In terms of BMI, the amount of physical activity of the elderly with \u0026ldquo;normal BMI\u0026rdquo; was significantly higher than those with \u0026ldquo;light BMI\u0026rdquo;. However, there was no significant difference in the amount of physical exercise between the elderly with \u0026ldquo;normal BMI\u0026rdquo; and those with \u0026ldquo;high BMI\u0026rdquo;. Besides, there was no significant difference in BMI between self-efficacy (P\u0026thinsp;\u0026gt;\u0026thinsp;0.05) and subjective well-being (P\u0026thinsp;\u0026gt;\u0026thinsp;0.05) ( as shown in Table\u0026nbsp;\u003cspan refid=\"Tab2\" class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e2\u003c/span\u003e).\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"gridtable\"\u003e\u003ctable float=\"Yes\" id=\"Tab2\" border=\"1\"\u003e\u003ccaption language=\"En\"\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"CaptionNumber\"\u003eTable 2\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"CaptionContent\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eDemographic differences of main variables(N\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;718)\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003c/caption\u003e\u003ccolgroup cols=\"5\"\u003e\u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c1\" colnum=\"1\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c2\" colnum=\"2\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c3\" colnum=\"3\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c4\" colnum=\"4\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c5\" colnum=\"5\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cthead\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/th\u003e\u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eClassification\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/th\u003e\u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eAmount of physical activity\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/th\u003e\u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eSelf-efficacy\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/th\u003e\u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eSubjective well-being\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/th\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003c/thead\u003e\u003ctbody\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\" morerows=\"2\" rowspan=\"3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eGender\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u003cp\u003emale\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e29.08\u0026thinsp;\u0026plusmn;\u0026thinsp;18.52\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e28.09\u0026thinsp;\u0026plusmn;\u0026thinsp;11.71\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.31\u0026thinsp;\u0026plusmn;\u0026thinsp;2.61\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u003cp\u003efemale\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e25.01\u0026thinsp;\u0026plusmn;\u0026thinsp;15.05\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e26.32\u0026thinsp;\u0026plusmn;\u0026thinsp;11.11\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e-0.15\u0026thinsp;\u0026plusmn;\u0026thinsp;2.58\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eT\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e3.18\u003csup\u003e**\u003c/sup\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e2.06\u003csup\u003e*\u003c/sup\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e2.37\u003csup\u003e*\u003c/sup\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\" morerows=\"2\" rowspan=\"3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eregistered residence\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u003cp\u003erural\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e25.60\u0026thinsp;\u0026plusmn;\u0026thinsp;16.93\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e27.04\u0026thinsp;\u0026plusmn;\u0026thinsp;12.05\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e-0.10\u0026thinsp;\u0026plusmn;\u0026thinsp;2.60\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u003cp\u003etown\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e28.49\u0026thinsp;\u0026plusmn;\u0026thinsp;16.53\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e27.21\u0026thinsp;\u0026plusmn;\u0026thinsp;10.52\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.26\u0026thinsp;\u0026plusmn;\u0026thinsp;2.60\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eT\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e2.28\u003csup\u003e*\u003c/sup\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.20\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e1.86\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\" morerows=\"4\" rowspan=\"5\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eBMI\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u003cp\u003elight\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e25.42\u0026thinsp;\u0026plusmn;\u0026thinsp;14.37\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e26.17\u0026thinsp;\u0026plusmn;\u0026thinsp;10.75\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e-0.10\u0026thinsp;\u0026plusmn;\u0026thinsp;2.55\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u003cp\u003enormal\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e29.02\u0026thinsp;\u0026plusmn;\u0026thinsp;19.02\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e28.29\u0026thinsp;\u0026plusmn;\u0026thinsp;11.49\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.20\u0026thinsp;\u0026plusmn;\u0026thinsp;2.65\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eheavy\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e25.05\u0026thinsp;\u0026plusmn;\u0026thinsp;17.08\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e26.87\u0026thinsp;\u0026plusmn;\u0026thinsp;13.31\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.17\u0026thinsp;\u0026plusmn;\u0026thinsp;2.67\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eF\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e4.21\u003csup\u003e*\u003c/sup\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e2.76\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e1.16\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eLSD\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003enormal\u0026gt;relatively light\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u0026mdash;\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u0026mdash;\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colspan=\"5\" nameend=\"c5\" namest=\"c1\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eNote: \u003csup\u003e*\u003c/sup\u003eP\u0026thinsp;\u0026lt;\u0026thinsp;0.05, \u003csup\u003e**\u003c/sup\u003eP\u0026thinsp;\u0026lt;\u0026thinsp;0.01。\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003c/tbody\u003e\u003c/colgroup\u003e\u003c/table\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv id=\"Sec13\" class=\"Section2\"\u003e\u003ch2\u003e3.3 Correlation analysis of physical activity amount, self-efficacy and subjective well-being of the elderly\u003c/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003ePearson correlation analysis indicated that (as shown in Table\u0026nbsp;\u003cspan refid=\"Tab3\" class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e3\u003c/span\u003e), physical activity was significantly positively correlated with self-efficacy (r\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;0.41, P\u0026thinsp;\u0026lt;\u0026thinsp;0.001); Physical activity was significantly positively correlated with subjective well-being (r\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;0.29, P\u0026thinsp;\u0026lt;\u0026thinsp;0.001), life satisfaction (r\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;0.27, P\u0026thinsp;\u0026lt;\u0026thinsp;0.001), positive emotion (r\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;0.26, P\u0026thinsp;\u0026lt;\u0026thinsp;0.001) and negative emotion (r\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;0.29, P\u0026thinsp;\u0026lt;\u0026thinsp;0.001); Self efficacy was significantly positively correlated with subjective well-being (r\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;0.26, P\u0026thinsp;\u0026lt;\u0026thinsp;0.001), life satisfaction (r\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;0.23, P\u0026thinsp;\u0026lt;\u0026thinsp;0.001), positive emotion (r\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;0.26, P\u0026thinsp;\u0026lt;\u0026thinsp;0.001) and negative emotion (r\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;0.25, P\u0026thinsp;\u0026lt;\u0026thinsp;0.001). It can be concluded that the correlation coefficient among the main variables is significant, which provides a basis for the subsequent test of the mediating effect.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"gridtable\"\u003e\u003ctable float=\"Yes\" id=\"Tab3\" border=\"1\"\u003e\u003ccaption language=\"En\"\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"CaptionNumber\"\u003eTable 3\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"CaptionContent\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eCorrelation matrix among main variables(N\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;718)\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003c/caption\u003e\u003ccolgroup cols=\"8\"\u003e\u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c1\" colnum=\"1\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c2\" colnum=\"2\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c3\" colnum=\"3\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c4\" colnum=\"4\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c5\" colnum=\"5\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c6\" colnum=\"6\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c7\" colnum=\"7\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c8\" colnum=\"8\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cthead\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/th\u003e\u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eM\u0026thinsp;\u0026plusmn;\u0026thinsp;SD\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/th\u003e\u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003ePhysical activity\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/th\u003e\u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eSelf-efficacy\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/th\u003e\u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eSubjective well-being\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/th\u003e\u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eLife satisfaction\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/th\u003e\u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e\u003cp\u003ePositive emotion\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/th\u003e\u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c8\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eNegative emotion\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/th\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003c/thead\u003e\u003ctbody\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e\u003cp\u003ePhysical activity\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e26.84\u0026thinsp;\u0026plusmn;\u0026thinsp;16.81\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e1\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c8\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eSelf-efficacy\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e27.12\u0026thinsp;\u0026plusmn;\u0026thinsp;11.41\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.41\u003csup\u003e***\u003c/sup\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e1\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c8\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eSubjective well-being\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.06\u0026thinsp;\u0026plusmn;\u0026thinsp;2.60\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.29\u003csup\u003e***\u003c/sup\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.26\u003csup\u003e***\u003c/sup\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e1\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c8\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eLife satisfaction\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e17.35\u0026thinsp;\u0026plusmn;\u0026thinsp;8.07\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.27\u003csup\u003e***\u003c/sup\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.23\u003csup\u003e***\u003c/sup\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.92\u003csup\u003e***\u003c/sup\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e1\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c8\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e\u003cp\u003ePositive emotion\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e25.61\u0026thinsp;\u0026plusmn;\u0026thinsp;11.20\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.26\u003csup\u003e***\u003c/sup\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.26\u003csup\u003e***\u003c/sup\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.94\u003csup\u003e***\u003c/sup\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.79\u003csup\u003e***\u003c/sup\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e1\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c8\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eNegative emotion\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e25.97\u0026thinsp;\u0026plusmn;\u0026thinsp;10.60\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.29\u003csup\u003e***\u003c/sup\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.25\u003csup\u003e***\u003c/sup\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.93\u003csup\u003e***\u003c/sup\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.77\u003csup\u003e***\u003c/sup\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.82\u003csup\u003e***\u003c/sup\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c8\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e1\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colspan=\"8\" nameend=\"c8\" namest=\"c1\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eNote: \u003csup\u003e*\u003c/sup\u003eP\u0026thinsp;\u0026lt;\u0026thinsp;0.05, \u003csup\u003e**\u003c/sup\u003eP\u0026thinsp;\u0026lt;\u0026thinsp;0.01, \u003csup\u003e***\u003c/sup\u003eP\u0026thinsp;\u0026lt;\u0026thinsp;0.001\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003c/tbody\u003e\u003c/colgroup\u003e\u003c/table\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv id=\"Sec14\" class=\"Section2\"\u003e\u003ch2\u003e3.4 Mediating effect test of self-efficacy\u003c/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn order to investigate the relationship among physical activity, self-efficacy and subjective well-being of the elderly and reveal the mediating role of self-efficacy, Amos was used to establish a structural equation model of physical activity, self-efficacy and subjective well-being based on the mediating effect test process proposed by Wen Zhonglin[\u003cspan citationid=\"CR27\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e27\u003c/span\u003e]. (Fig.\u0026nbsp;1) The results indicated that physical activity could positively predict subjective well-being (β\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;0.30, P\u0026thinsp;\u0026lt;\u0026thinsp;0.001). When self-efficacy was added as a mediation variable, the model had good fitting, and the results were as follows: x\u003csup\u003e2\u003c/sup\u003e/df\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;1.065, GFI\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;0.99, CFI\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;0.98, AGFI\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;0.99, TLI\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;0.97, IFI\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;0.98, RMSEA\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;0.01. Among them, the amount of physical activity had the ability to positively predict self-efficacy (β\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;0.40, P\u0026thinsp;\u0026lt;\u0026thinsp;0.001), self-efficacy could positively predict subjective well-being (β\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;0.18, P\u0026thinsp;\u0026lt;\u0026thinsp;0.001), while the path coefficient of physical activity on subjective well-being decreased from 0.30 to 0.23 (β\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;0.23, P\u0026thinsp;\u0026lt;\u0026thinsp;0.001), indicating that self-efficacy had a partial mediating effect with the mediating effect being 0.40\u0026times;0.18\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;0.072 (as shown in Table\u0026nbsp;\u003cspan refid=\"Tab4\" class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e4\u003c/span\u003e).\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"gridtable\"\u003e\u003ctable float=\"Yes\" id=\"Tab4\" border=\"1\"\u003e\u003ccaption language=\"En\"\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"CaptionNumber\"\u003eTable 4\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"CaptionContent\"\u003e\u003cp\u003ePath weight coefficient statistics table(n\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;835)\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003c/caption\u003e\u003ccolgroup cols=\"6\"\u003e\u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c1\" colnum=\"1\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c2\" colnum=\"2\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c3\" colnum=\"3\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c4\" colnum=\"4\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c5\" colnum=\"5\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c6\" colnum=\"6\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cthead\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eHypothesis\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/th\u003e\u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eVariable relationship\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/th\u003e\u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eBoot SE\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/th\u003e\u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eCR\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/th\u003e\u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eDirect effect\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/th\u003e\u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eMediation effect\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/th\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003c/thead\u003e\u003ctbody\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eH1\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u003cp\u003ePhysical activity\u0026rarr;Subjective well-being\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.02\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e5.72\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.23\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eH2\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u003cp\u003ePhysical activity\u0026rarr;Self-efficacy\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.02\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e11.86\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.40\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eH3\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eSelf-efficacy\u0026rarr;Subjective well-being\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\" morerows=\"1\" rowspan=\"2\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.03\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\" morerows=\"1\" rowspan=\"2\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e4.50\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\" morerows=\"1\" rowspan=\"2\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.18\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eH4\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u003cp\u003ePhysical activity\u0026rarr;Self-efficacy\u0026rarr;Subjective well-being\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.072\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003c/tbody\u003e\u003c/colgroup\u003e\u003c/table\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAt the same time, considering the significant gender differences in physical exercise, self-efficacy and subjective well-being of the elderly, male and female mediation models were constructed respectively in terms of gender (Fig.\u0026nbsp;2).\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFor males (model 1), physical activity can positively predict subjective well-being(β\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;0.27, P\u0026thinsp;\u0026lt;\u0026thinsp;0.001). When self-efficacy was added as a mediating variable, the model had good fitting, the results were as follows: x\u003csup\u003e2\u003c/sup\u003e/df\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;1.092, GFI\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;0.99, CFI\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;0.99, AGFI\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;0.98, TLI\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;0.99, IFI\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;0.98, RMSEA\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;0.02. Among them, the amount of physical activity can positively predict self-efficacy (β\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;0.47, P\u0026thinsp;\u0026lt;\u0026thinsp;0.001), self-efficacy can positively predict subjective well-being (β\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;0.15, P\u0026thinsp;\u0026lt;\u0026thinsp;0.05), while the path coefficient of physical exercise on subjective well-being decreased from 0.27 to 0.20 (β\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;0.20, P\u0026thinsp;\u0026lt;\u0026thinsp;0.01), indicating that self-efficacy had a partial mediating performance with the mediating effect being 0.47 \u0026times; 0.15\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;0.071 (as listed in Table\u0026nbsp;\u003cspan refid=\"Tab5\" class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e5\u003c/span\u003e).\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFor females (model 2), physical activity can positively predict subjective well-being (β1\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;0.33, P\u0026thinsp;\u0026lt;\u0026thinsp;0.001). When self-efficacy was added as a mediating variable, the model had good fitting, and the results were as follows: x\u003csup\u003e2\u003c/sup\u003e/df\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;0.938, GFI\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;0.99, CFI\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;1.00, AGFI\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;0.98, TLI\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;0.99, IFI\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;0.99, RMSEA\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;0.01. Among them, the amount of physical activity can positively predict self-efficacy (β\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;0.33, P\u0026thinsp;\u0026lt;\u0026thinsp;0.001), self-efficacy can positively predict subjective well-being (β\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;0.20, P\u0026thinsp;\u0026lt;\u0026thinsp;0.001), while the path coefficient of physical exercise on subjective well-being decreased from 0.33 to 0.26 (β\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;0.26, P\u0026thinsp;\u0026lt;\u0026thinsp;0.001), illustrating that self-efficacy had a partial mediating effect with the mediating effect being 0.33 \u0026times; 0.20\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;0.066 ( as shown in Table\u0026nbsp;\u003cspan refid=\"Tab5\" class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e5\u003c/span\u003e).\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"gridtable\"\u003e\u003ctable float=\"Yes\" id=\"Tab5\" border=\"1\"\u003e\u003ccaption language=\"En\"\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"CaptionNumber\"\u003eTable 5\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"CaptionContent\"\u003e\u003cp\u003ePath weight coefficient statistics table(N\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;835)\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003c/caption\u003e\u003ccolgroup cols=\"6\"\u003e\u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c1\" colnum=\"1\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c2\" colnum=\"2\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c3\" colnum=\"3\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c4\" colnum=\"4\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c5\" colnum=\"5\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c6\" colnum=\"6\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cthead\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eHypothesis\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/th\u003e\u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eVariable relationship\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/th\u003e\u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eBoot SE\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/th\u003e\u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eCR\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/th\u003e\u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eDirect effect\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/th\u003e\u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eMediation effect\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/th\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003c/thead\u003e\u003ctbody\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eH1\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u003cp\u003ePhysical activity\u0026rarr;Subjective well-being\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.03(0.02)\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e3.15(5.02)\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.20(0.26)\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eH2\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u003cp\u003ePhysical activity\u0026rarr;Self-efficacy\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.03(0.04)\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e9.43(7.00)\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.47(0.33)\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eH3\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eSelf-efficacy\u0026rarr;Subjective well-being\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\" morerows=\"1\" rowspan=\"2\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.05(0.03)\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\" morerows=\"1\" rowspan=\"2\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e2.31(3.94)\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\" morerows=\"1\" rowspan=\"2\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.15(0.20)\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eH4\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u003cp\u003ePhysical activity\u0026rarr;Self-efficacy\u0026rarr;Subjective well-being\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.071(0.066)\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colspan=\"6\" nameend=\"c6\" namest=\"c1\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eNote: the data in parentheses means the data of the female population.\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003c/tbody\u003e\u003c/colgroup\u003e\u003c/table\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/div\u003e"},{"header":"4 Discussion and Analysis","content":"\u003cdiv id=\"Sec16\" class=\"Section2\"\u003e\u003ch2\u003e4.1 Difference analysis of physical activity, self-efficacy and subjective well-being of the elderly\u003c/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eAs can be seen from the presented study, there were significant demographic differences in the amount of physical activity of the elderly. From the perspective of gender, the amount of physical activity of males was significantly higher than that of women. The previous studies have demonstrated that strong and competitive sports were preferred by men. In contrast, women would like to participate in mild, antagonistic and less intense sports, so the amount of men\u0026rsquo;s physical activity was higher[\u003cspan citationid=\"CR28\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e28\u003c/span\u003e]. For the elderly, we speculated that this may be attributed to the allocation of leisure time and exercise willingness. The reason is that parents are busy working and don\u0026rsquo;t have enough time to take care of their children when they are young. However, women would often take the responsibility of looking after grandchildren after retirement, resulting in that them don\u0026rsquo;t having enough time or interest to participate in physical activity. From the perspective of BMI, the amount of physical activity of the aged with normal BMI was significantly higher than those with light BMI. Regular physical exercise was a critical condition to adjust BMI, and the BMI of people who often participate in exercise was higher than that of people who do not exercise[\u003cspan citationid=\"CR29\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e29\u003c/span\u003e]. Besides, taking exercise regularly can effectively enhance the content of muscle and skeletal muscle, so as to improve the level of BMI. From the perspective of registered residence, the amount of physical activity of the elderly in urban areas was significantly higher than that of the rural elderly. This may be due to the fact that the economic and living standards are higher for the elderly in the urban areas, and the sports facilities in towns are better installed as compared to those in the rural areas, which makes the elderly in the urban areas participate in physical exercise more conveniently.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFurthermore, men\u0026rsquo;s self-efficacy was significantly higher than that of women among the elderly population. This is consistent with previous studies, that is, the self-efficacy of male elderly was higher than that of female elderly[\u003cspan citationid=\"CR30\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e30\u003c/span\u003e]. Wang Yali[\u003cspan citationid=\"CR31\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e31\u003c/span\u003e]reported that there were significant gender differences in the general self-efficacy of the rural elderly, and the general self-efficacy of women was lower. In addition, this study found that men\u0026rsquo;s subjective well-being was significantly higher than that of women. The research indicated that the subjective well-being of the elderly could be influenced by two major factors, including subjective factors and objective factors [\u003cspan citationid=\"CR5\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e5\u003c/span\u003e], and gender was one of the main influencing factors. In the elderly group, women\u0026rsquo;s subjective well-being has been proved to be significantly lower than that of men[\u003cspan citationid=\"CR32\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e32\u003c/span\u003e]. This may be caused by the influence of Chinese traditional culture, the retired men can be free from work and family, but the retired women still need to take care of the family[\u003cspan citationid=\"CR33\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e33\u003c/span\u003e]. Consequently, the male elderly had a higher sense of well-being.\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv id=\"Sec17\" class=\"Section2\"\u003e\u003ch2\u003e4.2 Direct impact of physical activity on the subjective well-being of the elderly\u003c/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eIt could also be found that physical activity could significantly and directly predict the subjective well-being of the elderly. The higher the amount of physical exercise, the stronger the subjective well-being of men or women. Generally speaking, subjective well-being would increase with the improvement of subjective well-being when individuals had more positive emotions, fewer negative emotions[\u003cspan citationid=\"CR34\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e34\u003c/span\u003e], and higher life satisfaction. On the other hand, physical health is an important manifestation of the happiness of the elderly. If physical health cannot be maintained, the quality of life and life satisfaction of the elderly may be affected[\u003cspan citationid=\"CR35\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e35\u003c/span\u003e]. Studies have demonstrated that regular physical exercise cannot only promote physical health, but also has a prominent positive impact on people\u0026rsquo;s mental health, improving life satisfaction and quality of life[\u003cspan citationid=\"CR36\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e36\u003c/span\u003e, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR37\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e37\u003c/span\u003e]. Physical activity can induce the generation of positive emotions, improve life satisfaction, and produce positive benefits for participants\u0026rsquo; well-being[\u003cspan citationid=\"CR38\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e38\u003c/span\u003e, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR39\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e39\u003c/span\u003e]. It should be pointed out that not any physical activity can improve the level of individual well-being, a certain amount or intensity of activity should be reached. For instance, Li Junlan[\u003cspan citationid=\"CR40\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e40\u003c/span\u003e]found that the amount of physical activity would significantly affect subjective well-being and psychological well-being. The greater the amount of physical exercise, the stronger the subjective well-being, and the ability to control good relationships and environment could also be greatly improved. Liu Mina[\u003cspan citationid=\"CR6\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e6\u003c/span\u003e]believed that participating in sports activities with others or adhering to appropriate sports for a long period could promote the positive experience of happiness and thereby significantly improve national happiness. Recently, a meta-analysis indicated that regular participation in sports activities was an effective way to facilitate the subjective well-being of the elderly[\u003cspan citationid=\"CR41\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e41\u003c/span\u003e]. In addition, the direct path coefficient of physical exercise affecting women\u0026rsquo;s subjective well-being and the significance level were higher compared to those of men. It can be seen that elderly women may be more likely to directly improve their level of well-being through active physical activity, which may be caused by physiological, psychological and other factors. Further investigation should be performed to clarify the causes. Luo Xinghua[\u003cspan citationid=\"CR42\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e42\u003c/span\u003e]pointed out that different exercise cycles would influence the mental health and quality of life of female elderly people to different degrees, and obvious benefits could be obtained by long-term exercise.\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv id=\"Sec18\" class=\"Section2\"\u003e\u003ch2\u003e4.3 The Mediating effect of self-efficacy between physical activity and subjective well-being\u003c/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eThrough the mediating effect inspection of the structural equation model, it was found that self-efficacy played a partial mediating role between physical exercise and the subjective well-being of the elderly. And the mediating effect of the male model was 0.071, while that of the female model was 0.066. This indicated that physical exercise can not only directly affect the subjective well-being of male or female elderly people, but also indirectly affect the subjective well-being with the help of the mediating effect of self-efficacy. The previous studies indicated that physical exercise played an important role in improving self-efficacy[\u003cspan citationid=\"CR8\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e8\u003c/span\u003e, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR43\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e43\u003c/span\u003e], and one\u0026rsquo;s self-efficacy would change positively after vigorous running or cycling[\u003cspan citationid=\"CR44\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e44\u003c/span\u003e]. In the youth group, physical activity had a significant positive correlation with self-efficacy. The higher the degree of physical exercise, the stronger the self-efficacy of college students[\u003cspan citationid=\"CR22\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e22\u003c/span\u003e]. And there were significant differences in the self-efficacy of adolescents with different intensities of exercise[\u003cspan citationid=\"CR45\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e45\u003c/span\u003e]. Gao Xu[\u003cspan citationid=\"CR46\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e46\u003c/span\u003e]found that active physical exercise could improve the general self-efficacy of middle-aged and elderly people, so as to improve cognitive function. Similarly, self-efficacy could positively predict one\u0026rsquo;s subjective well-being[\u003cspan citationid=\"CR20\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e20\u003c/span\u003e, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR47\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e47\u003c/span\u003e]. People with high self-efficacy usually had more confidence in life and maintained a certain level of subjective well-being, that is, self-efficacy could significantly and positively predict the subjective well-being of the elderly[\u003cspan citationid=\"CR21\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e21\u003c/span\u003e, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR48\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e48\u003c/span\u003e], and similar findings were also demonstrated by Meng Hui[\u003cspan citationid=\"CR18\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e18\u003c/span\u003e].On the contrary, people with low self-efficacy often doubted their ability, they were more prone to relax or give up, and had relatively more negative emotional experiences when facing difficulties[\u003cspan citationid=\"CR49\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e49\u003c/span\u003e]. Interestingly, researchers have found that there was a close relationship among physical activity, self-efficacy and subjective well-being of the elderly. Positive physical activity could promote the self-efficacy of the elderly, while high self-efficacy could effectively improve individual happiness perception experience such as life satisfaction and quality of life[\u003cspan citationid=\"CR50\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e50\u003c/span\u003e, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR51\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e51\u003c/span\u003e]. The results suggested that regularly participating in physical activity can improve their self-efficacy and indirectly improve their subjective well-being[\u003cspan citationid=\"CR41\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e41\u003c/span\u003e]for both men and women, that is, self-efficacy played a mediating role between physical exercise and subjective well-being, and there was no significant gender difference in mediating effect.\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv id=\"Sec19\" class=\"Section2\"\u003e\u003ch2\u003e4.4 Limitations and prospects\u003c/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn the presented study, a structural equation model was employed to explore the relationship among physical exercise, self-efficacy and subjective well-being of the elderly of different genders. Moreover, the mediating role of self-efficacy between physical exercise and subjective well-being was revealed, and a theoretical basis and reference were provided for the idea of \u0026ldquo;sports promote happiness\u0026rdquo;. However, the following limitations were included in the study: the results of this study tended to be subjective through cross-sectional investigation, and a deeper causal relationship could not be obtained. Longitudinal empirical research should be incorporated into future research to better reveal the causal relationship among the different variables. In addition, the study focuses on the relationship among three factors, namely, physical activity, self-efficacy and subjective well-being of the elderly. More mediating or regulatory variables should be further investigated to deeply reveal the internal mechanism of physical exercise affecting the subjective well-being of the elderly.\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/div\u003e"},{"header":"5 Conclusion","content":"\u003cp\u003eBased on the above analysis, the following conclusion can be drawn:\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e1) The amount of physical activity, self-efficacy and subjective well-being of elderly men were significantly higher than those of women; the amount of physical activity of urban elderly was significantly higher than that of rural elderly; and the amount of physical activity of the elderly with \u0026ldquo;normal BMI\u0026rdquo; was significantly higher than those with \u0026ldquo;light BMI\u0026rdquo;;\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e2) In the elderly group, the amount of physical activity had a significant positive correlation with self-efficacy and subjective well-being, and there was a significant positive correlation between self-efficacy and subjective well-being;\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e3) For both males and females, physical activity had a direct effect on the subjective well-being of the elderly, and self-efficacy played a partial mediating role between physical exercise and subjective well-being.\u003c/p\u003e"},{"header":"Abbreviations","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"DefinitionList\"\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"DefinitionListEntry\"\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"Term\"\u003e\u003cb\u003ePARS\u003c/b\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"Description\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e3\u003c/b\u003e Physical Activity Rating Scale\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"DefinitionListEntry\"\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"Term\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eGSES\u003c/b\u003e General Self\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"Description\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eEfficacy Scale\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"DefinitionListEntry\"\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"Term\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eSWS\u003c/b\u003e Subjective Well\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"Description\"\u003e\u003cp\u003ebeing Scale\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003c/div\u003e"},{"header":"Declarations","content":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eEthics approval and consent to participate\u003c/strong\u003e\u003cp\u003e This study was approved by the Ethics Committee of the College of Physical Education, Southwest University, Chongqing (Approval No. SWU-TY202106). All procedures were performed in accordance with the ethical standards of the World Medical Association\u0026rsquo;s Declaration of Helsinki. Written informed consent was obtained from all participants prior to their inclusion in the study.\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eConsent for publication\u003c/strong\u003e\u003cp\u003eNot applicable.\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ch2\u003eCompeting interests\u003c/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe authors declare no competing interests.\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\u003ch2\u003eFunding\u003c/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eNot applicable.\u003c/p\u003e\u003ch2\u003eAuthor Contribution\u003c/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eConceptualization: YL, MF, KW, JL, CH; Methodology: YL, MF, KW, CH; Data gathering: YL, MF, KW; Writing\u0026mdash;original draft preparation: YL, MF, KW, JL; Writing\u0026mdash;review and editing: YL, MF, JL, CH. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.\u003c/p\u003e\u003ch2\u003eAcknowledgement\u003c/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe authors extend their gratitude to all the older adults and staff who participated in this study.\u003c/p\u003e\u003ch2\u003eData Availability\u003c/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe datasets are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request for research purposes.\u003c/p\u003e"},{"header":"References","content":"\u003col\u003e\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan\u003eStatistical Communiqu\u0026eacute; of the People\u0026rsquo;s Republic of China on the 2017 National Economic and Social Development. National Bureau of Statistics. 2018. \u003cspan class=\"ExternalRef\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"RefSource\"\u003ehttps://www.stats.gov.cn/sj/zxfb/202302/t20230203_1899855.html\u003c/span\u003e\u003cspan address=\"https://www.stats.gov.cn/sj/zxfb/202302/t20230203_1899855.html\" targettype=\"URL\" class=\"RefTarget\"\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/span\u003e. 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Physical activity and quality of life in older adults: influence of health status and self-efficacy. Ann Behav Med. 2006;31:99\u0026ndash;103.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan\u003eDai Qun, Yao Jiaxin. The Relationship Between Physical Exercise and Life Satisfaction in Older Adults: The Mediating Roles of Self-Efficacy, Social Support, and Self-Esteem. J Beijing Sport Univ. 2012;35:67\u0026ndash;72.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\u003c/ol\u003e"}],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":true,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":false,"hideJournal":false,"highlight":"","institution":"","isAcceptedByJournal":true,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":false,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":false,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"bmc-psychology","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"externalIdentity":"psyo","sideBox":"Learn more about [BMC Psychology](http://bmcpsychology.biomedcentral.com/)","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"","title":"BMC Psychology","twitterHandle":"BMC_series","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":true,"editorialSystem":"stoa","reportingPortfolio":"BMC Series","inReviewEnabled":true,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true},"keywords":"the elderly, physical activity, self-efficacy, subjective well-being, mediating effect","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-6893504/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-6893504/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"\u003ch2\u003eBackground\u003c/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eWith the increasing pressure of a global aging population, ensuring and improving the well-being of the elderly is directly related to social harmony and stability. In the field of exercise psychology, the relationship between physical activity and subjective well-being has attracted much attention, but research on the elderly group has been rarely reported. Therefore, the presented paper aims to investigate the effect of physical activity on the subjective well-being of the elderly and reveal the role of self-efficacy between physical activity and subjective well-being.\u003c/p\u003e\u003ch2\u003eMethods\u003c/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eBy means of Physical Activity Rating Scale (PARS-3), General Self-efficacy Scale (GSES), and Subjective Well-being Scale (SWS), a questionnaire survey was conducted among 780 elderly people in Chongqing, China. And the data were processed and analyzed by SPSS 21.0 and AMOS 21.0 statistical software.\u003c/p\u003e\u003ch2\u003eResults\u003c/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003e1) Compared with females, elderly males possessed a higher amount of physical activity, self-efficacy and subjective well-being. There were significant differences in urban and rural areas and BMI for physical activity, which indicated that the old people in urban and the aged with normal BMI had higher amount of physical activity; 2) The amount of physical activity was positively correlated with self-efficacy (r\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;0.41, P\u0026thinsp;\u0026lt;\u0026thinsp;0.001) and subjective well-being (r\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;0.29, P\u0026thinsp;\u0026lt;\u0026thinsp;0.001), and self-efficacy was positively correlated with subjective well-being (r\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;0.26, P\u0026thinsp;\u0026lt;\u0026thinsp;0.001); 3) In the male model, physical activity exhibited a direct effect on subjective well-being (\u003cem\u003eES\u003c/em\u003e\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;0.20), and self-efficacy had a partial mediating effect between physical exercise and subjective well-being (\u003cem\u003eES\u003c/em\u003e\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;0.071); In the female model, physical activity had a direct effect on subjective well-being (\u003cem\u003eES\u003c/em\u003e\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;0.26), and self-efficacy played a partial mediating role in physical exercise and subjective well-being (\u003cem\u003eES\u003c/em\u003e\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;0.066).\u003c/p\u003e\u003ch2\u003eConclusion\u003c/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eFor both the old male and female, actively participating in physical activity can not only directly improve their subjective well-being, but also indirectly promote their subjective well-being through the action of self-efficacy.\u003c/p\u003e","manuscriptTitle":"Relationship Among Physical Activity, Self-efficacy and Subjective Well-being of the Elderly: A Cross-Sectional Study","msid":"","msnumber":"","nonDraftVersions":[{"code":1,"date":"2025-07-25 09:04:57","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-6893504/v1","editorialEvents":[{"type":"communityComments","content":0},{"type":"decision","content":"Revision requested","date":"2025-09-24T07:07:15+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""},{"type":"reviewerAgreed","content":"238613277852751415734011476748313068802","date":"2025-08-18T06:07:41+00:00","index":"hide","fulltext":""},{"type":"editorInvitedReview","content":"","date":"2025-08-03T22:55:01+00:00","index":"hide","fulltext":""},{"type":"reviewerAgreed","content":"123528756555945212080079476330895091766","date":"2025-07-31T17:31:31+00:00","index":"hide","fulltext":""},{"type":"editorInvitedReview","content":"","date":"2025-07-28T12:33:01+00:00","index":"hide","fulltext":""},{"type":"reviewerAgreed","content":"112607768048467436145128931059777323815","date":"2025-07-25T14:18:22+00:00","index":"hide","fulltext":""},{"type":"reviewerAgreed","content":"261992187488980280392241330670912344583","date":"2025-07-23T11:57:52+00:00","index":"hide","fulltext":""},{"type":"reviewersInvited","content":"","date":"2025-07-23T08:58:25+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""},{"type":"editorAssigned","content":"","date":"2025-07-16T15:22:54+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""},{"type":"editorInvited","content":"","date":"2025-06-30T13:15:42+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""},{"type":"checksComplete","content":"","date":"2025-06-27T15:38:14+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""},{"type":"submitted","content":"BMC Psychology","date":"2025-06-27T15:34:47+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""}],"status":"published","journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"bmc-psychology","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"externalIdentity":"psyo","sideBox":"Learn more about [BMC Psychology](http://bmcpsychology.biomedcentral.com/)","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"","title":"BMC Psychology","twitterHandle":"BMC_series","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":true,"editorialSystem":"stoa","reportingPortfolio":"BMC Series","inReviewEnabled":true,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true}}],"origin":"","ownerIdentity":"c279f726-89d0-419f-a4c2-48fbb66a7fba","owner":[],"postedDate":"July 25th, 2025","published":true,"recentEditorialEvents":[],"rejectedJournal":[],"revision":"","amendment":"","status":"published-in-journal","subjectAreas":[],"tags":[],"updatedAt":"2026-04-20T16:01:31+00:00","versionOfRecord":{"articleIdentity":"rs-6893504","link":"https://doi.org/10.1186/s40359-026-04509-2","journal":{"identity":"bmc-psychology","isVorOnly":false,"title":"BMC Psychology"},"publishedOn":"2026-04-14 15:58:20","publishedOnDateReadable":"April 14th, 2026"},"versionCreatedAt":"2025-07-25 09:04:57","video":"","vorDoi":"10.1186/s40359-026-04509-2","vorDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1186/s40359-026-04509-2","workflowStages":[]},"version":"v1","identity":"rs-6893504","journalConfig":"researchsquare"},"__N_SSP":true},"page":"/article/[identity]/[[...version]]","query":{"redirect":"/article/rs-6893504","identity":"rs-6893504","version":["v1"]},"buildId":"8U1c8b4HqxoKbykW_rLl7","isFallback":false,"isExperimentalCompile":false,"dynamicIds":[84888],"gssp":true,"scriptLoader":[]}