Introduction

Sense of meaning in life (SML) refers to an individual’s personal sense of their own life having value, direction, and purpose1. The subjective experience of SML is an important aspect of psychological well-being2,3. SML has a motivational and protective effect on the psychology of an individual. Individuals with a high SML tend to make sense of life experiences beyond trivial and transient events, set meaningful life goals, use their life energy to realize a desired future, and experience life as worth living. The study found that SML helps to increase an individual’s hope for the future and curiosity about life4. Meanwhile, SML was significantly negatively correlated with negative emotions or behaviors such as depression, loneliness and suicidal behavior5,6.

In recent years, researchers have become increasingly interested in identifying the lifestyle factors that may influence SML. Among these, PA has drawn considerable attention as a potential contributor to individuals’ SML. A significant body of empirical research indicates that regular PA not only effectively alleviates depression and anxiety but also enhances self-esteem, improves emotional regulation, and significantly boosts subjective well-being7. In this context, PA may not only serve as a means of improving physical health but also influence a SML through a variety of psychological and social pathways. Research suggests that PA can enhance emotional regulation, reduce negative emotions, and thus promote greater psychological resilience when dealing with daily challenges8. Additionally, PA often involves social interactions and group participation, which can help college students form positive social relationships and fulfill their psychological needs for belonging and support9. The strengthening of social connections may further deepen individuals’ understanding of life purpose and value, fostering a sense of self-fulfillment and accomplishment10. Although there is some evidence that PA has an impact on SML, the underlying mechanisms of this correlation remain unknown. In addition, fewer studies have focused on the relationship between different PA level and SML among Chinese northeastern college students. The present study aimed to explore the potential mechanisms underlying the association between different PA level and SML among Chinese northeastern college students.

Physical activity and sense of meaning in life

PA refers to the total amount of energy expended by an individual through various forms of physical movement in daily life. It includes not only intentional exercise, but also everyday physical activities11. Appropriate levels of PA can improve mental health, reduce anxiety and depression, and enhance subjective well-being12. Studies have shown that physical exercise can improve college students’ meaning in life13, positively impacts individuals’ negative emotions, such as anxiety, and has outstanding benefits in enhancing subjective well-being and releasing vitality in life14. Recent studies have also found that College students who regularly engage in physical exercise have higher overall levels of meaning in life15. Additionally, Park and Folkman’s Meaning-Making Model suggests that individuals reconstruct life meaning through cognitive and emotional processes. PA, as a positive experience, supports this reconstruction by enhancing emotional regulation, cognitive flexibility, and providing opportunities for discovering self-worth and life goals. This model offers a solid framework for understanding how PA fosters a sense of life meaning through psychological mechanisms16. However, few studies have focused on the life meaning of college students with different levels of PA. Therefore, we recruited a sample of Chinese college students to examine this relationship, which enriches the research on Chinese college students’ SML.

Coping styles as a mediator

CS refers to the cognitive and behavioral ways that individuals use to reduce their psychological distress when faced with stressful events and situations, including positive and negative CS17,18. Positive CS reflect that individuals engage in some cognitive or behavioral strategies that can lead to positive outcomes when they encounter stress19. And negative CS refer to behaviors and psychological strategies that individuals adopt when facing stress, challenges, or problems, which fail to effectively resolve the issue or may lead to long-term negative consequences17. Regular PA is associated with lower levels of anxiety and depression, allowing college students to manage negative emotions better and reducing the likelihood of using negative CS like avoidance20. At the same time, college students who used positive CS, such as problem solving, cognitive reappraisal and emotional regulation, tended to have a higher SML21. According to Lazarus and Folkman’s Stress and Coping Theory, coping serves as a key psychological mechanism involving cognitive appraisal and behavioral regulation in response to stress. PA can alleviate both physiological and psychological stress and promote the use of more positive and effective CS. These adaptive coping mechanisms, in turn, facilitate individuals’ cognitive processing and emotional regulation regarding life experiences, thereby enhancing their SML17.

Goals of the study

Based on the above review, the current study aimed to unpack the impact of PA on SML of Chinese northeastern college students, with CS as a mediator variable. We proposed a mediation model (Fig. 1). We attempted to answer whether (a) PA is related to college students’ SML, and (b) CS mediates the relation between PA and college students’ SML?

Fig. 1
figure 1

The proposed model. PA = Physical activity, PC = Coping style, SML = Sense of meaning in life .

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Aligned to these research questions, we proposed the following hypotheses:

H1

PA of college students has a significant positive effect on SML.

H2

CS plays a mediating role between PA and SML.

Materials and methods

Participants

This study was conducted in accordance with the ethical principles of the Declaration of Helsinki. The study protocol was reviewed and approved by the Ethics Committee of Northeast Normal University (Approval No. 202502046). Using the cluster sampling method, freshmen to sophomore students from a normal university in the Jilin Province of China were selected as the survey participants. Overall, a total of 2735 online questionnaires were submitted. After excluding 103 invalid responses (e.g., patterned responses or abnormal completion times), 2632 valid questionnaires were retained, resulting in a valid response rate of 96.2%. In this study, an online questionnaire was used, and submission will only be achieved with completing all questions in the questionnaire, and there were no missing values.

Participants had a mean age of 19.64 years (SD = 0.97), with ages ranging from 16 to 29 years. 74.9% are females, 40.9% are only child. Furthermore, 44.3%, 55.7% were freshmen and sophomores, respectively. This study focused on freshmen and sophomores because they are undergoing rapid psychological and social transitions while adjusting to university life. During this period, changes in their sense of meaning in life and coping styles are particularly prominent. Thus, they represent a relevant group for exploring how physical activity may influence these processes.

Measures

Physical activity scale

The three dimensions of PA intensity, duration of each exercise and the number of weekly exercises of participants were measured. The scale was scored using a 5-point Likert scale, with a higher total score indicating more physical exercise22. PA score = activity intensity score × (activity time score − 1) × activity frequency score, the score range is 0–100 points. According to the PA score, PA levels were classified into low, medium, and high categories: low intensity ≤ 19, moderate intensity 20–42, and high intensity ≥ 43.

Simplified coping style questionnaire (SCSQ)

The Simplified Coping Style Questionnaire (SCSQ) is a 20-item instrument that was developed by Xie18. Items 1–12 belong to positive coping and 13–20 belong to negative coping. Using a 4-point Likert scale ranging from ‘not adopted’ to ‘often adopted’. The scale has been widely used in China and has demonstrated high reliability and validity. In this study, the alpha coefficient of the positive coping subscale was 0.954.

The sense of meaning of life questionnaire

The Sense of Meaning of Life Questionnaire (MLQ-C), compiled by Steger, translated and revised by Liu and Gan, was adopted23,24. It consists of two sub-scales: the presence of meaning (five items; e.g., “I understand the meaning of my life”) and the search for meaning (five items; e.g., “I am searching for the meaning of my life”). College students rated each item on a seven-point scale ranging from 1 (absolutely untrue) to 7 (absolutely true), with the second item rated in reverse. Higher scores indicate perceiving a stronger SML. In this study, the overall internal consistency coefficient of the scale was 0.893.

Procedure

Participants were invited to complete an online questionnaire via a secure survey platform. Before beginning the survey, they were informed about the purpose of the study and provided informed consent. Participation was voluntary, and students were assured of the anonymity and confidentiality of their responses. They were instructed to complete the questionnaire independently and to answer all questions based on their actual experiences.

Data analysis

IBM SPSS for Windows (version 22.0) was used to perform the common method deviation test, descriptive statistical analysis, and correlation analysis. AMOS 24.0 was used to perform tests and bootstrap analysis of structural equation models. In this case, the bootstrap method was used to draw samples 5000 times and estimate 95% confidence intervals.

Results

Common method deviation test

Data for all variables in this study were reported by college students. An unrotated factor analysis was conducted for all questionnaire items using Harman’s one-way test25. The results of the unrotated exploratory factor analysis extracted a total of 4 factors with a characteristic root greater than 1. The maximum factor variance explained was 15.27%, which was less than 40%, so there was no serious common method bias in this study.

Descriptive Statistics and Correlation

Pearson correlation was used to evaluate the variables in this study, and the results of the descriptive statistics and correlation analysis are shown in Table 1. The results showed that the PA of college student, CS, and SML showed a two-way correlation, and all of them showed significant positive correlations.

Table 1 Mean, standard deviation and correlation coefficient matrix for each variable.
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Test of the mediating effect

Location, family type and SES are significantly positively correlated with the SML, so they are included in the control variables. According to Wen and Ye, the scenarios in which the independent variable is a categorical or hierarchical variable can be handled by defining a dummy variable, and the mediating effect can be analyzed in exactly the same way as the steps for continuous variables26. Therefore, in this study, total PA was treated as a continuous variable and low PA, medium level PA and high level PA were treated as categorical variables.

A mediation model with the CS as a mediator was tested using AMOS 24.0. All data were standardized before analysis, and the samples were repeated 5000 times using the bootstrap method to estimate 95% confidence intervals. Table 2 and Fig. 2 indicate the mediation model fit well: χ2/df = 4.098, RMSEA = 0.034, CFI = 0.996, TLI = 0.988, NFI = 0.995, RFI = 0.984, and IFI = 0.996. Table 3 indicates that the direct effect of the PA on SML was 0.047 (95% CI [0.008,0.085], p < 0.05), indicating that PA positively predicts SML. The indirect effect of the PA, CS, and SML was 0.113 (95% CI [0.083,0.143], p < 0.001), with all confidence intervals not containing 0. The direct and indirect effects were significant, indicating that the CS partially mediates the relationship between PA and SML.

Table 2 Model fitting index table.
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Fig. 2
figure 2

A model of the relationships among physical activity level, coping styles, and sense of life. PA = Physical activity, PCS = Positive coping style, NPS = Negative coping style, PC = Coping style, SM = Search for meaning, PM = Presence of meaning, SML = Sense of meaning in lif.

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Table 3 Mediating effect and 95% confidence interval estimated by the bootstrap method.
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As shown in Table 2 and Fig. 2, in the case of low PA, testing this mediation model and the mediation model fits well: χ2/df = 3.522, RMSEA = 0.031, CFI = 0.997, TLI = 0.990, NFI = 0.996, RFI = 0.986, and IFI = 0.997. Table 3 indicates that the direct effect of the low PA on SML was − 0.040 (95% CI [ − 0.074, − 0.008], p < 0.05), indicating that low PA negatively predicts SML. The indirect effect of the low PA, CS, and SML was − 0.085 (95% CI [ − 0.113, − 0.055], p < 0.01), with all confidence intervals not containing 0. The direct and indirect effects were significant, indicating that the CS partially mediates the relationship between low PA and SML.

As shown in Table 2 and Fig. 2, in the case of medium PA, testing this mediation model and the mediation model fit well: χ2/df = 2.941, RMSEA = 0.027, CFI = 0.998, TLI = 0.992, NFI = 0.996, RFI = 0.988, and IFI = 0.998. Table 3 indicates that the direct effect of the PA on SML was 0.026 (95% CI [ − 0.005, 0.057], p > 0.05), indicating that medium PA did not significantly predict SML. The indirect effect of the medium PA, CS, and SML was 0.036(95% CI [0.007, 0.064], p < 0.05), with all confidence intervals not containing 0. These results indicate that the CS fully mediates the relationship between medium PA and SML.

As shown in Table 2 and Fig. 2, in the case of high PA, testing this mediation model and the mediation model fit well: χ2/df = 3.566, RMSEA = 0.031, CFI = 0.997, TLI = 0.990, NFI = 0.995, RFI = 0.986, and IFI = 0.997. Table 3 indicates that the direct effect of the high PA on SML was 0.028 (95% CI [ − 0.007, 0.063], p > 0.05), indicating that high PA did not significantly predict SML. The indirect effect of the high PA, CS, and SML was 0.085(95% CI [0.056, 0.114], p < 0.05), with all confidence intervals not containing 0. These results indicate that the CS fully mediates the relationship between high PA and SML. Therefore, Hypothesis 1 Hypothesis 2 were supported.

Discussion

The relationship between physical activity and sense of meaning in life

Our results indicated that PA positively relates to individuals’ SML. It can be supported by empirical evidence and psychological theories. Studies have shown that regular PA is associated with improved mental health, including reduced anxiety, depression, and stress levels, which are all key factors influencing a person’s sense of purpose and life satisfaction12. When individuals engage in PA, they often experience enhanced emotional regulation and increased endorphin levels, leading to better mood and mental clarity27.These improvements create a foundation for individuals to reflect on their lives and find meaning in their daily experiences. Moreover, the social aspects of PA, such as team sports or group exercises, foster a sense of community and belonging, which positively impacts an individual’s perception of life meaning. This is especially valuable in high-stress academic environments, PA provides a productive way for college students to manage stress and build resilience. Research indicates that PA can increase self-efficacy and feelings of competence, which are crucial for personal development and establishing life goals28. When students feel capable and in control of their well-being, they are more likely to pursue meaningful activities and reflect on their lives with a greater sense of purpose. As emphasized by the meaning-making model, individuals reconstruct life meaning through cognitive and emotional processing. PA, as a positive experience, aids emotional regulation and cognitive flexibility, while offering opportunities to discover self-worth and life goals, thus supporting the meaning-making process16.

The mediating role of coping styles

Our results indicated CS mediated the relationship between PA and SML, suggesting that PA could have a positive effect on CS, which in turn helps stimulate one’s SML. As emphasized by the Stress and Coping Theory, PA, as a positive experience, helps alleviate individuals’ physiological and psychological stress, promotes the adoption of more positive and effective CS, and thereby enhances their SML17. Studies have found that regular PA can help college students improve emotional regulation, thereby reducing negative emotions and stress responses29. Then, through better emotional management, college students who are more physically active are more likely to adopt positive coping strategies, such as problem solving and emotional reappraisal, rather than choosing avoidance or avoidance20. At the same time, PCS can enhance an individual’s self-efficacy and life satisfaction30, which directly influences their SML. Studies show that individuals who use positive coping strategies are more likely to find goals and value in life, thereby enhancing their SML31.

Interestingly, our results classify the PA level and test the mediating effect with the three dimensions of low, medium and high respectively. The results showed that, in the structural model developed in this study, CS played a partial mediating role between low PA and SML, and low PA significantly negatively predicted SML. However, CS played a completely mediating role between medium and high levels of PA and SML. Studies have shown that at low levels of PA, the effect on CS is limited because it does not sufficiently trigger physiological changes in the body, such as the release of endorphins or the regulation of neurotransmitters12. Correspondingly, other psychological and social factors, such as family support, social connections, and personal beliefs, may play a more important role in the formation of SML32. Meanwhile, PA, particularly when it is planned and goal-directed, provides a sense of purpose and accomplishment, which is directly related to the SML33. Low levels of PA may leave individuals feeling unchallenged and lacking progress, both physically and psychologically, which can diminish their SML. However, the positive effects of PA on emotional regulation, self-efficacy, stress management, and social interaction were more significant as the amount of PA increased, especially at moderate or high levels34. Studies have shown that moderate-high levels of PA can prompt individuals to adopt positive coping strategies, such as problem-oriented coping and emotional regulation, by improving mental health (e.g. reducing anxiety and depression) and boosting self-efficacy17. These PCS can significantly enhance an individual’s understanding and SML. Therefore, at medium and high levels of PA, the impact of PA on the SML is almost entirely realized through CS, forming a completely mediating role.

Implications for theory and practice

Although there is some evidence that PA has an effect on SML, the underlying mechanisms of this correlation remain unknown. This study explores the potential mechanisms of the association between PA and SML among college students from the perspectives of CS, clarifying that CS plays a mediating role in the relationship between PA and SML. This not only provides some insights into the meaning of life education and mental health promotion of college students, but will also provide insights for policy makers to increase PA and promote physical and mental health among college students.

First, colleges and universities should pay attention to the daily physical exercise of college students and enhance their interest in exercise through specialized physical education courses and sports club activities. Second, educators can help college students learn and adopt PCS to face challenges and pressures in their lives through mental health education courses, guiding students to discover and utilize their strengths, and to develop problem-solving abilities and optimistic attitudes toward life.

Strengths, limitations, and future recommendations

This research contributes to the literature in two ways. Firstly, explores mediating effects separately under different dimensions of PA, which is relatively rare and helps to explore the mechanism at a deeper level. Secondly, this study provides stronger evidence on the relationship between PA and SML and explores the underlying mechanism in this relationship.

Several limitations should be considered. Firstly, this study utilized a cross-sectional research design, which did not allow for rigorous evidence of causal relationships and interactions between the variables measured. A longitudinal research design could be used in subsequent studies to further examine the effects of college students’ PA levels on CS and SML. Then, in this study, although there was a statistically significant predictive effect of college students’ PA on both the coping with modality and SML variables, why such a predictive effect developed in practice and how to help college students better enhance their SML need to be further explored. A mixed-method research design (mixed-method research) can be used subsequently in combination with the use of qualitative research methods such as interviews and observations to better answer this question. Finally, this study used convenience sampling, and the sample taken was from Northeastern China, so the findings need to be tested with larger samples from other regions. The relationships revealed by the study are also worth further validating and exploring with data from students in other school segments.

Conclusion

In conclusion, we found that PA is positively related to college students’ SML, and the CS mediated the relationship between PA and college students’ SML. This study deepened the understanding towards the college students by the investigating how to improve their SML.