How physical exercise impacts academic burnout in college students: The mediating effects of self-efficacy and resilience

Abstract

Physical exercise was significantly and negatively associated with academic burnout and its three subfactors (i.e., emotional exhaustion, improper behavior, and low personal achievement). Participants in the high physical exercise group showed lower levels of academic burnout than those in the moderate and low physical exercise groups. Finally, our serial mediation model showed that physical exercise had a significant direct effect on academic burnout (β = -0.1104, 95% CI = [-0.1421, -0.0791]) in addition to significant indirect effects on academic burnout <i>via</i> self-efficacy and resilience (β = -0.0802, 95% CI = [-0.1088, -0.0527]); the more exercise participation, the lower the academic burnout among college students. These findings suggest that physical exercise is an important interventional target when aiming to reduce academic burnout.