The impact of physical activity participation on subjective well-being among middle-aged adults The parallel mediating roles of perceived social fairness and aging anxiety
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Abstract
The paper employs a large-scale dataset on physical exercise and subjective well-being in China to conduct an empirical analysis of the variables by using a national representative dataset of the society. Findings suggest the following: (1) physical exercise can be clearly shown to have significant positive effect on subjective well-being in middle-aged adults, (2) perceived social fairness and aging anxiety is shown to exhibit substantial mediating effects within the relationship that existed between physical exercise and subjective well-being, (3) demographic factors, such as gender, household registration, and educational level, are shown to have group differences in the specific pathways. The following policy suggestions can be offered: (1) the inclusion of sport participation space should be contributed to with an aim at making fairness perception well; (2) aged anxiety should be targeted by instituting interventions aimed at enhancing the conception of psychological resilience; (3) differentiated support strategies should be developed based on vulnerable groups; (4) institutional guarantee systems should be introduced to sustain participation; and (5) the cultural identity of the aging should be restructured to upgrade the concepts of values.
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China Three Gorges University
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