Introduction

With the continuous advancement of society and the sustained improvement of living standards, individuals’ pursuit of self-worth has been progressively elevated. As a key indicator reflecting the quality of life, subjective well-being has become a central theme permeating people’s daily existence. College students are in the stage of rapid physical and mental development and gradually moving towards perfection and maturity. The mental health problems of college students have been highly valued by experts and scholars at home and abroad. Therefore, exploring the influencing factors and the occurrence mechanism of subjective well-being among college students, and adopting effective strategies to improve their subjective well-being level, has a certain theoretical and practical significance for them to actively cope with stress events in life, maintain mental health and improve subjective well-being. Sports exercise can produce a lot of positive psychological effects on contemporary college students, and its impact on subjective well-being is highly concerned by psychological researchers. Domestic and foreign experts and scholars have carried out a lot of theoretical research and practical analysis on the relationship between sports exercise and subjective well-being from different perspectives, revealing the different internal influence mechanisms between them. Some survey research shows that contemporary college students often have negative emotions such as boredom, anxiety and distress, and the emergence of these emotions shows that some college students do not know how to understand happiness, feel happiness and create happiness1, and subjective well-being directly affects the mental health of Chinese college students2. Zhang et al.3 conducted an empirical analysis of the correlation between different exercise intensities, exercise time and different exercise frequencies of college students and the results of subjective well-being and personality attitude tests, which affirmed the positive role of sports activities on subjective well-being. In the study of physical activity and mental health, Hayes et al.4 revealed the phenomenon that exercise promotes the improvement of subjective well-being through empirical analysis. Tan Yannian et al.5 constructed a psychological capital mediation model of the impact of sports exercise on subjective well-being, and pointed out that sports exercise positively predicted subjective well-being and psychological capital, and psychological capital played a partial mediating role between sports exercise and subjective well-being. One of the classic issues in contemporary positive psychology is subjective well-being (subjective well-being), and the relationship between sports exercise and subjective well-being has become a hot issue in the field of exercise psychology. For the definition of happiness, each individual has its own subjective judgment criteria. Although the objective conditions such as living environment and living conditions are closely related to the sense of happiness, the judgment of happiness still needs the individual’s subjective perception. With the deepening discussion of the relationship between sports exercise and subjective well-being, the related research of meta-analysis in recent years has been refreshing, but the problem of “why sports exercise can improve subjective well-being” has not been effectively explained6. Recent years, the academic circles have affirmed the positive role of sports exercise on life happiness. Exploring its intrinsic mechanism and mediating effect has become the focus of current research. The current research focus is to explore the fundamental reasons for its internal influence mechanism and mediation effect. Based on the concern for the mental health problems of college students, this study focuses on explaining how sports exercise empowers the subjective well-being of college students.

The enhancement intrinsic mechanism, with reference to existing research, hypothesizes that there is a mediating effect of college students’ mindfulness and emotion regulation between physical exercise and life well-being. The empirical test of the relationship between physical exercise and subjective well-being can be conducted by enhancing college students’ well-being through mindfulness and emotion regulation, accumulate research evidence on the relationship between physical exercise and subjective well-being, and offer insights into the education practice to improve college students’ subjective well-being.

The association between physical exercise and subjective happiness

Physical exercise is a physical activity aimed at developing the body, enhancing physical fitness, promoting health, regulating the spirit, and enriching cultural life7. Its main purpose is to achieve overall personal development by enhancing physical quality, improving psychological state, and raising life satisfaction. Subjective well-being is a comprehensive psychological metric centering on happiness, reflecting an individual’s subjective experience of their life state and surrounding environment. The formation mechanism of this happiness is complex and diverse, involving both the individual’s self-evaluation of their current state and the perception and judgment of the surrounding environment. According to relevant research, the formation of subjective well-being requires individuals to possess certain cognitive abilities and emotional judgment capabilities8. Wicker et al.9 explored the relationship between physical exercise and subjective well-being based on large-scale observational studies, using methods such as instrumental variable method. The results showed that physical exercise can indeed change an individual’s subjective well-being by affecting the neural activity of the brain. Wicker et al. pointed out that there may be a causal effect between physical exercise and subjective well-being, but this relationship is not absolute and may be influenced by various factors of the individuals9. The explanations for the reasons why physical exercise can affect subjective well-being in existing research are not yet perfect. Qiao et al.6 believes that sports can bring happiness because the elements of “play” contained in sports itself (i.e., playing games, casual exercise, competitive competitions, etc.) may stimulate individuals’ joy in participating in sports to a certain extent. Studies have shown that compared with those who do not participate in physical exercise, those who actively participate in physical exercise can improve the quality of life and life satisfaction of individuals10. Based on the above analysis, it can be considered that participating in physical exercise helps to improve people’s subjective well-being, so hypothesis 1 is proposed: University students’ sports exercise behavior has a significant direct effect on improving individual subjective well-being.

The mediating role of mindfulness

The term mindfulness originated from the Eastern Buddhist tradition11. Mindfulness refers to a conscious awareness of the present environment and one’s own feelings while maintaining an accepting attitude towards the current experience, and it falls within the domain of cognition12,13. Mindfulness is often described as maintaining one’s attention on the internal and external experiences in the present moment, being aware of what is occurring, and it often prompts individuals to observe their current thoughts and feelings from a certain distance and to hold them with an accepting attitude and not to judge them as good or bad14. Roberts et al.15 found that mindfulness was significantly associated with sports exercise enjoyment and daily sports exercise level and significantly positively influenced daily sports exercise behavior. Kangasniemi et al.16 showed that individuals with high levels of physical exercise participation have a higher mindfulness level than those with low participation. Studies in the field of exercise have introduced mindfulness to help enhance the subjective well-being of exercise participants, and the results are refreshing: mindfulness intervention effectively enhanced positive mood and reduced negative mood in sports exercise participants, and in many studies related to mindfulness, the positive relationship between mindfulness and subjective well-being has received consistent support from most researchers17. There is research that mindfulness plays a mediating role between sports exercise and subjective well-being among college students, that mindfulness is significantly associated with sports exercise behavior18, and that it can significantly predict health-related behaviors such as sports exercise19, but the relationship between the two cannot be determined. Accordingly, Hypothesis 2 is proposed: mindfulness plays a positive mediating role between sports exercise behavior and subjective well-being among college students.

The mediating role of emotion regulation

Regulation of emotion refers to the process in which individuals adjust their emotional experience or expression to achieve specific goals. This process includes multiple dimensions such as self-awareness of one’s ability to manage emotions, the choice of emotional expression, and the regulation of emotional states. Bandura et al.20 believes that an individual’s ability to self-regulate emotions can be understood as the externalization of their confidence level in emotional management and their level of self-awareness in regulating emotional states. This ability is not only manifested as the choice tendency of emotional regulation strategies but is also closely related to individuals’ effective coping with stress, improving the quality of interpersonal relationships, and increasing subjective well-being. The habitual use of different emotional regulation strategies has different effects on subjective well-being. Positive emotional regulation can maintain stable emotions and have a positive impact on subjective well-being. Studies have shown that emotions are catalysts for decision-making behavior, reflecting individuals’ ability to externalize their thoughts and implement behavior. The psychological processing of emotions and cognition complement each other21. The formation of sports exercise behavior is an individual’s perception change of sports exercise. Persistent exercise is a continuous or consistent behavioral tendency of individuals to participate in sports exercise22 and is one of the rational factors for individuals’ cognition of sports exercise23. Therefore, exploring the factors affecting exercise behavior from the emotional level and investigating the role of emotional modulation in the relationship between sports exercise and subjective well-being can help clarify the causal relationship between emotion and exercise behavior formation in the process of sports exercise practice. Accordingly, Hypothesis 3 is proposed: Emotional modulation plays a mediating role in the sports exercise behavior experience of happiness.

Serial mediation of mindfulness and emotion regulation

Mindfulness has a significant impact on the use of emotion regulation strategies. Mindfulness is considered as one of the effective methods to improve individuals’ emotion regulation abilities24. Hayes et al.25 have found that mindfulness can significantly improve positive emotion and significantly reduce negative emotion. Individuals with higher mindfulness levels use fewer maladaptive emotion regulation strategies such as avoidance, inhibition, and rumination4. The habitual use of different emotion regulation strategies has different effects on subjective well-being. Adaptive emotion regulation can keep a balance and stability of emotion, and has a positive effect on subjective well-being. There is evidence from a neurobiological perspective that mindfulness can improve emotion regulation, including changing hemispheric balance in the brain through mindfulness training to affect individual emotion regulation ability26, and changing brain activity through mindfulness training to affect individual emotion regulation ability27. There are researchers who have summarized the theoretical models of the role of mindfulness in emotion regulation24, and summarized the theoretical models such as the mindfulness coping model and the mindfulness emotion regulation model. The principles of its theoretical models are fully discussed, and the empirical research results support some of these models. In summary, high levels of mindfulness can not only improve the level of positive emotion of individuals, but also significantly reduce their negative emotion level. Its mechanism of realization lies in that the practice of mindfulness can help individuals establish a positive cycle of emotion regulation. The discovery of this mechanism provides an important theoretical support for understanding the relationship between mindfulness and emotion regulation. The effect of mindfulness on emotion regulation has basically been proved, but its internal mechanism of action with physical exercise and well-being is still not clear. H4: Mindfulness and emotion regulation play a chain mediation role between physical exercise and well-being.

In summary, this study constructed a chain mediation model of the relationship between sports exercise and subjective well-being. That is, from the perspective of sports exercise, it verified the intrinsic mechanism between sports exercise and subjective well-being among college students, and explored the chained mediation effect of mindfulness and emotion regulation in this model (shown as Fig. 1).

Fig. 1
figure 1

Conceptual framework diagram.

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Objectives and methods

Objective

Using stratified cluster random sampling method, an online questionnaire survey was conducted among 739 college students in 11 ordinary universities in the eastern, northern, central, southern and western regions from September 1 to September 31, 2024. In each school, two classes from different grades were randomly selected. After eliminating invalid questionnaires and missing data, 7 01 valid questionnaires were recovered, with an effective recovery rate of 84.42%. The age was 18–22 years old, with an average of 19.85 ± 1.28 years old. The sample included 391 males and 310 females. There were 235 freshmen, 157 sophomores, 175 juniors and 134 senior students.

This research was conducted in accordance with the Helsinki Declaration. This study was approved by the Research Ethics Committee of Zhaoqing University. All participants were thoroughly apprised of the study’s objectives and methodologies, and subsequently provided their voluntary, informed consent through the signing of consent forms. The confidentiality of participant information was meticulously maintained throughout the study.

Variable measurement

Physical exercise

The Sport Exercise Quantitative Scale was adopted, revised by Wu28, which was adapted from the commitment intention scale of physical exercise compiled by Chen et al.29. Now the scale consists of 8 items, including sport exercise commitment (e.g., “It would be difficult for me to withdraw from physical exercise.”), and physical exercise persistence (e.g., “I persist in my daily exercise well.”) The “adhering to physical exercise” was measured by a 2-dimensional scale with 4 entries for each aspect. A 5-point Likert scoring method was used to score each item from “strongly disagree”, “disagree”, “neither agree nor disagree”, “agree”, and “strongly agree” scoring 1–5 points, respectively. The total score indicated the level of physical exercise of the subjects. The higher the total score, the higher the level of physical exercise of the subjects. The scale was proved to have high applicability among the college students in China29. In the present study, the coefficient of Cronbach’s α of this scale was 0.65.

Subjective well-being

The subjective well-being scale was developed by Campbell et al.30 and adapted and modified by Wang et al.31. The scale comprises two parts, including the General Affect Index and the Life Satisfaction Questionnaire. The General Affect Index contains eight items and the Life Satisfaction Questionnaire has only one item, and a 7-point Likert method of scoring is adopted. The average score of the 8 items of the General Affect Index and the score of the Life Satisfaction Questionnaire (with a weight of 1.1) were summarized to get the total score, which lies between 2.1 (the least happy) and 14.7 (the happiest), with a higher score indicating a stronger level of subjective well-being of the individual. Ma et al.32 used this scale for the population of in-school college students and conducted reliability check, and the Cronbach’s α coefficient was 0.920. It was found that the scale was suitable for the group of Chinese college students and could validly test the college students’ awareness and feelings about their own life status33. In the present study, the Cronbach’s α coefficient of the scale was 0.95.

Mindfulness

MAAS was developed by Brown and Ryan12 and was later modified and refined by Chen et al.34 with a sample of Chinese college students, verifying that the scale had a certain degree of reliability and validity and could be widely promoted and applied in China. The scale was designed to assess individuals’ levels of attention and awareness to current events based on their life experiences and is one of the currently most commonly used mindfulness measurement tools. The scale consists of 15 items, using a 6-point Likert scoring method. Each item is divided into six levels according to the frequency: 1 (almost always), 2 (very frequent), 3 (somewhat frequent), 4 (somewhat infrequent), 5 (very infrequent), and 6 (almost never). The average score range is from 15 to 90, with higher scores indicating a higher level of mindfulness in the subjects. Xu et al.35 applied it to a group of college students and conducted reliability and validity testing. The Cronbach’s α was 0.867. The study found that the scale has a good discrimination and can be applied to both the mindful and non-mindful groups, and is a relatively reliable and valid measurement tool36. In this study, the Cronbach’s α coefficient of the scale is 0.95.

Emotion regulation

Using the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (ERQ) developed by Gross and John37, it was translated, revised, and validated for reliability and validity by Chinese scholars Wang et al.38. This scale includes two dimensions: cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression. Cognitive reappraisal refers to changing the understanding of emotional events and changing the personal significance of emotional events. Expressive suppression is a form of response modification that occurs after an emotional response and involves the inhibition of an emotional expression behavior that is about to occur. The questionnaire contains 10 items, including 6 items in the cognitive reappraisal dimension and 4 items in the expressive suppression dimension, using a 7-point Likert scoring method, where “1” represents strong disagreement and “7” represents strong agreement. Zhou39 used this questionnaire to measure the emotion regulation strategies of college students and validated the reliability and validity. The questionnaire has an internal consistency coefficient of 0.853, and the degree of fit between the standard measurement model and the actual data is good, and the structural validity of the scale is also good. Zhang et al.40 confirmed the effectiveness of the scale in Chinese student groups through research and pointed out that researchers could use the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (ERQ) in future studies to test the change mechanism of emotion (mood) management and the intervention process of mindfulness on emotion (mood) and subjective well-being. In this study, the Cronbach’s α coefficient of the scale was 0.92.

Statistical analysis

Descriptive statistical analysis, Pearson correlation analysis, independent sample t-test, one-way ANOVA, multiple regression analysis was performed by using SPSS 26.0, and the chain mediation effect was tested by using the Process module. A p < 0.05 was considered statistically significant. In the analysis, age and gender variables were controlled.

Results

Common method bias test

The common method bias was examined in this study using the Harman one-factor test41. The results showed that a total of 7 factors with eigenvalues greater than 1 were extracted, and the first factor explained the variance of 37.84%, which is below the critical value of 40%. Therefore, it can be considered that there is no serious common method bias problem.

Descriptive statistics and correlation analysis

As shown in Table 1, the mean, standard deviation, and Pearson’s correlation coefficients between the averages of physical exercise and several variables of mindfulness, emotion regulation, and subjective well-being are presented. The significant correlations between the variables were confirmed, and the mediation analysis was further performed.

Table 1 Correlation analysis of all variables variable.
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Mediation analysis

Based on the nonparametric percentile bootstrap method proposed by Hayes42. Introduction to mediation, moderation, and conditional process analysis: A regression-based approach (2nd ed.). The Guilford Press.), the PROCESS (Version 3.3) macro model 6 was employed to test the mediation effect with 5000 sampling conditions, and the Confidence Interval (CI) was set at 95%.

First, we examined the direct path of physical exercise to SWB. The results show that the direct effect of physical exercise on SWB was β = − 0.04 (p > 0.05), the effect value β < 0, indicating that the effect of physical exercise on subjective well-being was completely transmitted through mediating variables, i.e., complete mediation effect, combined with Bootstrap (CI) 95% confidence interval [− 0.10, 0.02], which contains 0 value, indicating that the direct effect of physical exercise behavior and individual SWB was not significant and failed to reach the level of significance, and the H1 was not verified. Second, we examined the mediation of mindfulness and emotion regulation between physical exercise and mental health (see Fig. 2). The results show that, β = 0.28, p < 0.01, CI [0.20, 0.36]; Mindfulness and SWB were positively correlated, β = 0.17, p < 0.01, CI [0.10, 0.24]. The effect value β > 0, indicating that the direct effect of physical exercise and mindfulness, mindfulness and subjective well-being was significant, combined with Bootstrap (CI) 95% confidence interval value does not contain 0 value, Mindfulness played a positive mediating role between the behavior of physical exercise and the experience of SWB, and H2 was verified. Physical exercise was positively correlated with emotion regulation, β = 0.11, p < 0.01, CI [0.05, 0.18]; Emotion regulation was positively correlated with SWB, β = 0.62, p < 0.01, CI [0.55, 0.69]. The effect value β > 0, indicating that the direct effect of physical exercise and emotion regulation, emotion regulation and subjective well-being were significant, combined with Bootstrap (CI) 95% confidence interval value does not contain 0 value. Emotion regulation played a mediating role in the experience of happiness in the behavior of physical exercise, and H3 was verified. Mindfulness and emotion regulation were positively correlated, β = 0.54, p < 0.01, CI [0.46, 0.62], and the mediating effect test showed (see Table 2) that the chain mediating effect of mindfulness and emotion regulation was significant, the effect value β > 0, indicating that the direct effect of physical exercise and mindfulness, mindfulness and emotion regulation, emotion regulation and subjective well-being were significant, combined with Bootstrap (CI) 95% confidence interval value does not contain 0 value. Indicating that the mediating effect of mindfulness and emotion regulation in physical exercise and SWB was significant, and H 4 was verified.

Fig. 2
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Moderated mediation model.

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Table 2 Mediated effect and effect size.
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Discussion

The latent independent variable in this study is the exercise behavior of college students, exploring its impact on subjective well-being. Two mediating variables: mindfulness and emotion regulation were introduced to investigate whether there is a mediating and chain mediating effect between college students’ exercise and subjective well-being.

Sport and subjective well-being

Studies show that physical exercise has a significant positive impact on college students’ subjective well-being. The survey shows that 88.7% of college students can stimulate positive emotions and a good mindset through factors such as the frequency, time, and intensity of physical exercise, thereby enhancing their subjective well-being and satisfaction. This finding is consistent with the research conclusions in the field of exercise and sport psychology. A large number of experimental and observational studies have shown that there is a significant positive correlation between physical exercise and subjective well-being. Researchers in the field of exercise psychology have pointed out that physical exercise can promote the generation of positive emotions and mental states, and this promoting effect is independent of individual factors such as gender, age, race, weight, grade, or socio-economic background, and is not affected by whether or not one has exercised previously. However, this study found that when the mediator variable was introduced, the direct path between physical exercise and subjective well-being became insignificant (p > 0.05), and this finding suggests that the influence of physical exercise on subjective well-being may involve a more complex mediating mechanism. Therefore, Hypothesis 1 is supported.

In the survey, it was discovered that the vast majority of students did not conduct a preliminary assessment of their physical condition when participating in physical exercise. The criterion for termination of exercise was ‘feeling tired’ or ceasing exercise along with the exercise partner. These are not conducive to the experience of subjective happiness. Moderate physical exercise can relieve stress and reduce tension, thereby enhancing subjective well-being. However, moderate-intensity physical exercise can significantly enhance subjective well-being, while high-intensity physical exercise may significantly weaken this feeling. This finding is consistent with the research of Pamela and others43, who pointed out that moderate-intensity physical exercise can effectively enhance an individual’s sense of well-being, while excessive exercise intensity can trigger physical and psychological stress responses and have a negative impact on subjective well-being. In addition, the length of time spent on physical exercise also has a significant impact on an individual’s subjective well-being44. When college students engage in physical exercise, their subjective well-being is not only related to the intensity of the exercise, but also closely related to the duration of the exercise. A longer exercise duration can provide a sustained sense of pleasure, thereby further enhancing subjective well-being.

The direct effect of physical exercise on subjective well-being found in this study was not significant (β = − 0.04, p > 0.05, effect size β < 0), suggesting that the effect of physical exercise may be mainly reflected through the mediating variables of mindfulness and emotion regulation. The survey results and the correlation analysis results showed that physical exercise can enhance an individual’s level of mindfulness, thereby strengthening the ability to regulate emotions. This enhanced level of mindfulness and emotion regulation ability further promotes the subjective well-being of college students under the mediating effect. This finding is consistent with the research conclusions of sports psychology and emotion regulation theory, that is, mindfulness and emotion regulation are the key mediating factors connecting physical exercise with subjective well-being.

The independent mediating effect of mindfulness

Mindfulness is a unique psychological phenomenon that involves the individual’s ability to be aware of and focus on the present experience without judgment. This awareness is not a passive observation but an active, intentional engagement. The mindfulness theory reveals its unique psychological mechanisms from multiple dimensions. Mindfulness significantly reduces the occurrence of negative thoughts by reducing the individual’s reliance on existing patterns and default reactions. Studies have shown that mindful individuals can effectively call upon positive cognitive resources rather than being dominated by negative thinking when facing stress or challenges45. Additionally, mindfulness can provide an immediate and automatic buffer mechanism for the individual. With the function of this mechanism, the individual can temporarily stop complex psychological judgments and logical reasoning, thus maintaining psychological stability and simplicity46. This buffering function is particularly important in daily life, especially when facing uncertainties or external. When disturbed, it can help the individual remain calm and deal with it rationally.

The mediating effect of mindfulness in the relationship between physical exercise and subjective well-being is a complicated psychological phenomenon. Firstly, physical exercise can increase an individual’s subjective well-being indirectly by improving their mindfulness level. The mechanism of this mediating role can be analyzed from the perspective of mindfulness and emotion regulation. Mindfulness is not only an ability to perceive but also an emotion regulation mechanism. Through mindfulness training, individuals can reduce the generation of negative emotions and enhance the experience of positive emotions. This means that the high level of mindfulness induced by physical exercise can provide an emotionally stable environment for individuals, thus indirectly improving their subjective well-being47. Secondly, mindfulness plays a mediating role in this process. The results show that: physical exercise is positively correlated with mindfulness level, β = 0.17, p < 0.01, CI [0.10, 0.24], which contributes to the improvement of subjective well-being; mindfulness is positively correlated with subjective well-being, β = 0.28, p < 0.01, CI [0.20, 0.36]; Mindfulness plays a positive mediating role between physical exercise behavior and the experience of subjective well-being, physical exercise reduces the negative reaction of individuals when they are facing difficulties or setbacks by improving their mindfulness level. This process of enhancing mindfulness essentially creates a better psychological environment for positive emotional experience by reducing negative thinking and emotional experience. The mechanism of this mediating effect not only explains the relationship between mindfulness and physical exercise and subjective well-being but also provides a deeper perspective of understanding. The research findings of MacKinnon et al.48 point out that mediators are important factors affecting the relationship between independent variables and dependent variables. In this study, the level of mindfulness is an important mediating variable in the effect of physical exercise on subjective well-being. That is, with the improvement of mindfulness level, physical exercise can directly or indirectly promote the subjective well-being of individuals. Physical exercise enhances the individual’s positive cognitive of the situation by improving the individual’s mindfulness level, thereby promoting the improvement of subjective well-being. This mediating effect shows that the improvement of mindfulness level plays a key connection role between physical exercise and subjective well-being. H2 was supported.

The independent mediating effect of emotion regulation

The present study further explored the mediating role of emotion regulation in the relationship between physical exercise and subjective well-being and found that positive emotional experience was the core mechanism by which physical exercise affected the subjective well-being of individuals. The results showed that physical exercise was positively correlated with emotion regulation (β = 0.11, p < 0.01, CI [0.05, 0.18]), and emotion regulation was also positively correlated with subjective well-being (β = 0.62, p < 0.01, CI [0.55, 0.69]), and emotion regulation showed a significant mediating effect between physical exercise and subjective well-being (specific data to be supplemented). This finding is highly consistent with the theoretical basis of positive emotions49, which points out that positive emotions are a necessary prerequisite for the formation of physical exercise behavior. From the perspective of the theory of positive emotions, the mechanism by which physical exercise affects individual subjective well-being is closely related to emotion regulation. Positive emotional experience can effectively reduce negative emotional experience, and studies have shown that the activation level of the amygdala and the medial orbitofrontal cortex is significantly reduced under the experience of positive emotions, which reduces physiological reactions and sympathetic nervous system activation50. This shows that positive emotions can protect individuals from emotional distress by inhibiting the generation of negative emotions, and provides important theoretical support for the impact of physical exercise on subjective well-being.

Lafreniere51 and Ong52 further demonstrate that contextualized, social, and harmonious expressions of passion have a significant role in enhancing self-enhancement and life satisfaction in activities. The study shows that the regulation of emotion does not exist in isolation, but can be in combination with the individual’s self-experience through contextualized and socialized forms of expression, thereby promoting the generation of positive emotions in the process of sports exercise. The generation of such positive emotions not only enhance the individual’s sense of self-identity and life satisfaction, it can also activate brain areas such as the amygdala and the medial orbitofrontal cortex, promoting the individual’s effective emotional processing ability. College students may experience stress related to learning motor skills, challenges from competitors and frustration caused by them during sports exercise. These negative emotional experiences may have a negative impact on the mental health of college students in the short term. However, when college students overcome these difficulties through their own efforts, achieve a sense of accomplishment and form a more positive mindset, they can enhance their problem-solving ability. College students who frequently participate in sports exercise tend to use optimized emotional regulation strategies when facing stress events in life. Its mechanism lies in reducing the negative emotional response to emotional events by changing the understanding of emotional events, having more positive emotional experiences. In other words, college students cope with emotional events in life through strategies such as emotional expression, and actively exert the mediating effect of emotional regulation, effectively expand the individual’s attention and cognitive ability, thereby responding to problems more efficiently and constructing resources, which is conducive to maintaining a high level of subjective well-being, and Hypothesis 3 is verified.

Serial mediation of mindfulness and emotion regulation on the relationship

The results of this study showed that mindfulness and emotion regulation were positively correlated, β = 0.54, p < 0.01, CI [0.46, 0.62]. The results of the study are consistent with the existing studies that emotion regulation plays an important mediating role between mindfulness and subjective well-being of the individual53. Mindfulness, as an advanced psychological process, reflects the individual’s open and receptive attitude towards emotional experience, and its core characteristics include non-judgment, non-suppression of emotions, and awareness and acceptance of emotional experience. The improvement of mindfulness level not only enhances the individual’s ability to regulate emotions but also significantly improves the state of emotional experience. Studies have shown that54, emotion regulation shows unique functions on the basis of mindfulness, and its mechanisms include the following points: First, the stronger the ability to regulate emotions, the easier it is for individuals to enter a state of relaxation and calm, which helps individuals to view negative emotions more effectively, showing stronger tolerance and acceptance ability, thereby reducing the intensity of negative emotional experience. Second, mindfulness enhances the individual’s awareness of the physical condition, thereby enhancing the awareness, and then enhancing the ability of emotion regulation, and the improvement of this ability will lead to stronger subjective well-being. Third, the improvement of the ability to regulate emotions enables individuals to better control their emotions, and thus be more likely to feel the positive factors in life, thereby enhancing life satisfaction.

The mediation effect test showed that—mindfulness and emotional regulation were significant serial mediation effects in the relationship between sports exercise and subjective well-being (see Table 2). This result indicates that—mindfulness and emotional regulation skills play an important chain mediation role in the relationship between sports exercise and SWB, and this thereby affects the individual’s SWB. Mindfulness, as a trainable emotional regulation strategy, plays an important role in sports exercise. Sports exercise, as an activity that requires continuous input and can provide immediate feedback, can effectively promote the formation of mindfulness and improve emotional regulation ability. The mechanism of mindfulness in sports exercise is mainly reflected in: Firstly, mindfulness helps individuals establish immediate automatic buffering mechanisms to alleviate the impact of negative emotions, and this mechanism can significantly reduce the negative impact of negative emotions on subjective well-being45. Secondly, mindfulness in sports exercise can help individuals establish awareness and acceptance of emotional experience, and the improvement of this ability can enhance the individual’s self-regulation ability, so that they show stronger adaptability when facing life stress. Thirdly, mindfulness can also improve individuals’ emotional satisfaction by cultivating positive emotional experience, and this satisfaction is an important part of subjective well-being. To improve college students’ physical exercise and enhance subjective well-being, under the premise of grasping the characteristics of college students’ physical exercise, the synergistic effect of mindfulness and emotional regulation in exercise, not only can individuals gain existing positive psychological effects, but also their subjective well-being can be further enhanced. However, the research results also indicate that some college students still have certain problems in subjective well-being. This may be related to various factors, such as external pressure, an individual’s emotional regulation ability, and their perception of life. Therefore, educators and society should concern the cultivation of emotional regulation ability while concerning the mental health of college students. Effectively improve the level of mindfulness and emotional regulation ability of college students, thus helping college students better adapt to life challenges, thereby steadily improving the contemporary college students’ sense of well-being in life, achieve their all-round development. Hypothesis 4 was verified.

Limitations and prospects

This study has some limitations. To begin with, the cross-sectional study design was adopted, and the relationship between variables was analyzed only through a one-time data collection, which was somewhat limited and unable to establish the causal sequence caused by its underlying mechanism. Therefore, although the significant relationship between sports exercise, SWB, and emotion regulation in college students was found, the deep mechanism of its causal sequence could not be determined. Future academic research should adopt a multidimensional design that can conduct follow-up observation on individuals to better explore the causal relationship between these variables. Moreover, this study mainly relied on self-reported questionnaires to collect data, which may have expectation effects and self-report biases. Future studies should combine objective evaluation methods such as behavioral observation, interviews or physiological measurements, and strive to obtain more objective and comprehensive data sources to increase the generalizability of the research conclusions.

For future research, the following aspects could be further expanded and deepened: confirm the deep causal relationships among exercise, subjective well-being, and emotion regulation among college students through longitudinal designs; design psychological intervention programs designed for subjective well-being, mindfulness, and emotion regulation to assess their impact on the subjective well-being of college students. Investigate in depth the specific process by which exercise affects mindfulness, emotion regulation, and subjective well-being through psychological and neurological mechanisms to reduce subjective reporting bias. Through this research, obtain a more comprehensive understanding of the mechanism by which physical exercise affects college students’ subjective well-being, develop more effective psychological intervention strategies, and enhance college students’ life happiness and all-round development.

Conclusions

(1) Sport exercise has a significant positive impact on the subjective well-being of college students. When introducing mediator variables, the direct path between sport exercise and subjective well-being becomes insignificant, the research shows that there is a complex mediating mechanism of the impact of sport exercise on subjective well-being. (2) Mindfulness has an independent positive mediating effect between sport exercise and subjective well-being, and sport exercise can improve the subjective well-being of college students with the improvement of mindfulness level. (3) Emotion regulation has an independent mediating effect between sport exercise and subjective well-being. College students can promote the generation of positive emotions in the process of sport exercise, and actively play the mediating effect of emotion regulation through strategies such as emotion externalization, which is conducive to maintaining high subjective well-being. (4) Mindfulness and emotion regulation have a chain mediating effect between sport exercise and subjective well-being. Effectively improving college students’ mindfulness level and emotion regulation ability can help to improve the subjective well-being of the contemporary college students steadily.