The effect of physical exercise on college students' chemistry learning engagement: the chain mediating role of self-efficacy and autonomous motivation

The effect of physical exercise on college students' chemistry learning engagement: the chain mediating role of self-efficacy and autonomous motivation | 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 Article The effect of physical exercise on college students' chemistry learning engagement: the chain mediating role of self-efficacy and autonomous motivation Yang Lv, Yang Liu This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-7080316/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Objective: To explore the relationship between physical exercise and college students' chemistry learning engagement , as well as the mediating role of self-efficacy and autonomous motivation between the two. This study adopted a cross-sectional design and selected 625 college students (55.2% male and 44.8% female) from some universities in Liaoning Province, China through a simple random sampling method. The questionnaire includes the Physical Activity Scale, Self Efficacy Scale, Self autonomous Scale, and Chemistry Learning Engagement Scale. SPSS 29.0, PROCESS 3.4 plugin, and Bootstrap method were used to analyze the data and test the chain mediating effect of self-efficacy and autonomous motivation. Result: (1) Physical exercise is positively correlated with college students' chemistry learning engagement, and has a significant direct predictive effect on chemistry learning engagement. (2) Physical exercise can positively predict self-efficacy, self-efficacy can positively predict autonomous motivation and chemistry learning engagement, and autonomous motivation can positively predict chemistry learning engagement. (3) Self efficacy and Autonomous motivation play an important mediating role in the relationship between physical exercise and chemistry learning engagement. Conclusion: (1) Physical exercise has a significant positive predictive effect on college students' chemistry learning engagement; (2) Self efficacy and autonomous motivation play a mediating and chain mediating role in the relationship between physical exercise and college students' chemistry learning engagement. Physical sciences/Mathematics and computing Biological sciences/Psychology Social science/Psychology Physical exercise Chemistry learning engagement Self-efficacy Autonomous motivation Chain mediation Full Text Additional Declarations No competing interests reported. Supplementary Files Supplementaryinformation.xlsx Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 1 posted 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. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. 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-7080316","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":506854517,"identity":"43044c94-6343-4067-a17b-30a1b1d526d4","order_by":0,"name":"Yang Lv","email":"data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAZAAAAAyAQMAAABI0h/eAAAABlBMVEX///8AAABVwtN+AAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAAA3ElEQVRIiWNgGAWjYBACxmY4M7nxAYMBaVoSmw2I0oIEEtskiFLH3M787OHXNps8effEtsofBXfkGdgPH92A32Fs5saybWnFhmcett3mMXhm2MCTlnYDvxYGM2nJtsOJG2cktt1mMDjM2CDBY0ZAC/s3uJbCHwaH7YnQwmMm+RGoZb5EYhsDj8HhRGK0lEkznEtL3MDzsFkaqCW5jZBfDPuPb5P8UWaTOL89+eDHH38O2/azHz6GX0sDMKB52RgYDA5ARdjwKQcBeZDjfvwBMhoIKR0Fo2AUjIIRCwDAfU4iacahKQAAAABJRU5ErkJggg==","orcid":"","institution":"Dalian University","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"Yang","middleName":"","lastName":"Lv","suffix":""},{"id":506854518,"identity":"400e9e0c-5818-47da-ae0d-af737315647a","order_by":1,"name":"Yang Liu","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Jilin University","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Yang","middleName":"","lastName":"Liu","suffix":""}],"badges":[],"createdAt":"2025-07-09 06:08:33","currentVersionCode":1,"declarations":"","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-7080316/v1","doiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-7080316/v1","draftVersion":[],"editorialEvents":[],"editorialNote":"","failedWorkflow":false,"files":[{"id":102008458,"identity":"2dda65d6-d454-4d38-8023-70baa4087b19","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2026-02-06 05:10:44","extension":"pdf","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":513761,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"manuscriptFile.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-7080316/v1_covered_a9849951-1fb6-47da-83d0-79209020a803.pdf"},{"id":90187766,"identity":"b4ec9a82-e67c-4f35-8563-564e06eb7516","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-08-29 14:57:36","extension":"xlsx","order_by":3,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"supplement","size":465773,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"Supplementaryinformation.xlsx","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-7080316/v1/80903601b346a9ac40c24359.xlsx"}],"financialInterests":"No competing interests reported.","formattedTitle":"The effect of physical exercise on college students' chemistry learning engagement: the chain mediating role of self-efficacy and autonomous motivation","fulltext":[],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":false,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":false,"hideJournal":true,"highlight":"","institution":"","isAcceptedByJournal":false,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":true,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":true,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true},"keywords":"Physical exercise, Chemistry learning engagement, Self-efficacy, Autonomous motivation, Chain mediation","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-7080316/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-7080316/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"\u003cp\u003eObjective: To explore the relationship between physical exercise and college students' chemistry learning engagement , as well as the mediating role of self-efficacy and autonomous motivation between the two. 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