A160: Effects of Social Support on College Students' ExerciseBehavior

<bold>Background/Purpose:</bold> Improving college students’ physical fitness and health has been a critical concern for the state and society. Existing studies have shown that exercise self-efficacy and social support are essential intrinsic and extrinsic factors influencing college students’ exercise behavior. This study is based on the theory of social support. It replaced positive psychology with exercise self-efficacy, analyzed the influence of social support on college students’ exercise behavior, and explored the mediating role of exercise self-efficacy between social support and exercise behavior. <bold>Methods:</bold> 807 college students were randomly selected for the survey using the Perceived Social Support Scale, Physical Exercise Behavior Scale, and Exercise Self-Efficacy Scale. Data were analyzed on SPSS 26.0 using descriptive statistics, Pearson’s correlation method for variable correlation, the PROCESS plug-in (version 3.1) Model 4 for mediation analysis, and the Bootstrap test. <bold>Results:</bold> (1) There was a significant positive correlation between social support, exercise behavior, and exercise self-efficacy (<italic>r</italic> = 0.114–0.193, <italic>P</italic> &lt; 0.01); (2) Social support was able to negatively and significantly positively predict exercise behavior (<italic>β</italic> = 2.680, <italic>P</italic> &lt; 0.01); (3) Exercise self-efficacy played a partial mediating role in the influence of social support on physical exercise behavior (<italic>β</italic> = 0.327, <italic>t</italic> = 5.200, 95% <italic>CI</italic> = [0.183, 1.122], interval does not include 0), and the mediating effect was 21.29%. <bold>Conclusion/Discussion:</bold> Exercise self-efficacy had a mediating role in the influence of social support on college students’ exercise behavior. It also suggested that school sports departments can enhance exercise self-efficacy by improving college students’ social support to further promote their participation in exercise activities. Unlike previous studies, this study replaced positive psychology with exercise self-efficacy and analyzed the partial mediating effect of exercise self-efficacy between social support and exercise behavior, suggesting that we may also have other psychological variables, such as exercise motivation. In the mediation model, this study only analyzed the overall social support. The follow-up study can divide social support into three dimensions: family support, friend support, and teacher support, and explore the specific impact path and differences. In summary, this study examined social support as an independent variable, exercise behavior as a dependent variable, and exercise self-efficacy as an intermediary variable to construct an intermediary model. Combined with the perspective of sports science and psychology, it provided a theoretical basis for guiding college students to participate in physical exercise and actively improve their physical health.