Associations of growth mindset, grit, and self-compassion with subjective vitality, physical education enjoyment, and exercise intention in university physical education: a complementary SEM and fsQCA analysis

Inroduction Drawing on Self-Determination Theory, Implicit Theories of Ability, and Self-Compassion Theory, this study examined cross-sectional associations of growth mindset, grit, and self-compassion with subjective vitality, physical education (PE) enjoyment, and exercise intention. Methods Data from 1,500 undergraduates across eight Chinese universities were analysed using SEM and fsQCA. Results In the revised partial-mediation model, growth mindset, grit, and self-compassion were positively associated with subjective vitality (β = 0.300, 0.221, 0.176) and PE enjoyment (β = 0.340, 0.137, 0.091). Growth mindset and grit also showed direct associations with exercise intention (β = 0.105, 0.137), whereas self-compassion did not (β = −0.032). Subjective vitality and PE enjoyment were positively associated with exercise intention (β = 0.220, 0.408), and the model explained 44.8% of its variance. Bias-corrected 95% CIs from 5,000 bootstrap samples excluded zero for all six specific indirect effects. Under the primary calibration scheme, fsQCA identified no single positive condition as necessary; the highest necessity consistency was 0.842 for growth mindset with high subjective vitality and 0.802 for grit with high PE enjoyment, both below 0.90. Two minimal sufficient configurations characterised high subjective vitality (GM*Grit and GM*SC; solution consistency = 0.810, coverage = 0.823), whereas no configuration met the sufficiency thresholds for high PE enjoyment. Discussion The findings provide cross-sectional evidence consistent with the proposed framework but do not establish causal or temporal ordering.