The mediating advantage of social capital: examining the pathways from physical exercise to subjective well-being

TL;DR

This study finds that physical exercise improves well-being mainly through social connections rather than health benefits, using data from China.

Contribution

The study empirically compares the mediating roles of social capital and health capital in the relationship between physical exercise and well-being.

Findings

Physical exercise is positively associated with well-being, but part of the effect may be due to stable individual differences.

Social capital mediates 44.6% of the effect of exercise on well-being, significantly more than health capital (14.1%).

The depression risk pathway also mediates 38.7% of the effect, showing psychological benefits of exercise.

Abstract

Subjective well-being is a crucial indicator of individual quality of life and mental health. Physical exercise is widely recognized as a beneficial behavior for enhancing well-being, yet the underlying mechanisms—particularly the relative importance of social capital versus health capital—remain to be fully elucidated. The aim of this study was to investigate the impact of physical exercise on subjective well-being and to compare the dual mediating roles of social capital and health capital using nationally representative panel data.

This study utilized three waves of panel data from the China Family Panel Studies (CFPS) spanning 2018 to 2022 and applied mixed regression models, fixed effects models, and Bootstrap mediation analysis to systematically examine the impact of physical exercise on subjective well-being and its underlying mechanisms.

The results show that: (1) A robust positive association between physical exercise and well-being was identified. However, after controlling for time-invariant individual traits in the fixed effects model, the coefficient substantially decreased, suggesting that part of the observed association may reflect stable psychosocial differences across individuals. (2) Mediation analysis revealed that the social capital pathway exerted the strongest mediating effect (accounting for 44.6% of the total effect), significantly exceeding that of the health capital pathway (14.1%). This indicates that physical exercise primarily influences well-being through mechanisms of social integration. (3) The depression risk pathway also exhibited a significant mediating effect (38.7%), highlighting the beneficial role of physical exercise in psychological and emotional well-being.

These findings imply that public health policies should emphasize the social embedding of physical exercise by promoting community-based and group activities to more effectively achieve the dual goals of health promotion and enhancement of subjective well-being. Additionally, this empirical study set in the context of Chinese collectivist culture provides critical evidence for cross-cultural comparisons of sociocultural factors and health behavior mechanisms, thereby expanding the culturally specific perspective in well-being research.

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