Abstract

This research examines the relationship between physical exercise and subjective well-being via the mediation of body image and self-esteem, thereby providing some suggestions on the improvement of subjective well-being in college students. A total of 671 college students from three universities of science and engineering in Sichuan, China voluntarily participated in the survey. Descriptive statistics, Pearson’s product-moment correlation, and mediation model analysis were conducted using the SPSS statistics 19.0. The results showed that the physical exercise level was positively and significantly correlated with the subjective well-being level in each dimension college students with the medium and high level of exercise have higher subjective well-being than those with the low level of exercise, and body image and self-esteem played a complete mediation role between physical exercise and subjective well-being. The mediation analysis revealed two paths: first, the single mediating path via self-esteem [indirect effect = 0.087, 95% CI: ] and second, the serial mediating path via body image and self-esteem [indirect effect = 0.038, 95% CI: ]. Some practical implications have been discussed on the physical exercise intervention for promoting the subjective well-being level in college students.