A variable- and person-centered study of physical exercise volume and psychological flourishing among Chinese college students: serial indirect associations of self-compassion and body appreciation and latent profile analysis

Introduction: Promoting psychological flourishing among college students is a central goal of positive mental health research. Guided by an embodied positive psychology perspective, this cross-sectional study examined the association between physical exercise volume and psychological flourishing among Chinese college students, focusing on indirect associations through self-compassion and body appreciation and on heterogeneity in positive self-body relationship profiles. Methods: A total of 2,401 students from 15 universities in Sichuan Province, China, completed measures of physical exercise volume, self-compassion, body appreciation, and psychological flourishing. Structural equation modeling was used to examine direct, specific indirect, and serial indirect associations. Latent profile analysis was used to identify configurations of self-compassion dimensions and body appreciation, and R3STEP and BCH analyses were used to examine associations with physical exercise volume and differences in psychological flourishing. Results: Physical exercise volume was positively associated with psychological flourishing. Significant indirect associations were observed via self-compassion, body appreciation, and the serial association through self-compassion and body appreciation. The indirect association via self-compassion was larger than that via body appreciation. Four profiles were identified: low self-compassion-low body appreciation, high self-compassion-high body appreciation, mindfulness-dominant moderate, and low-mindfulness moderate. Higher physical exercise volume was associated with lower odds of the low self-compassion-low body appreciation profile and higher odds of the high self-compassion-high body appreciation profile relative to the low-mindfulness moderate profile. Psychological flourishing was highest in the high self-compassion-high body appreciation profile, lowest in the low self-compassion-low body appreciation profile, and intermediate and statistically comparable in the two moderate profiles. Conclusion: Integrating average-level indirect associations with person-centered self-body configurations provides a more nuanced account of the relationship between physical exercise and psychological flourishing among college students. Given the cross-sectional design, the findings should be interpreted as theoretically meaningful associations rather than causal mechanisms.