How physical activity relates to college students’ prosocial behavior through psychological capital and social connectedness

Against the backdrop of accumulating psychological stress and challenges in social adaptation, physical activity is widely recognized as an important daily behavior associated with the physical and mental health of college students. However, the pathways linking physical activity to prosocial behavior remain insufficiently understood. Drawing on conservation of resources theory, this study develops a resource transformation framework incorporating physical activity, psychological capital, social connectedness, and prosocial behavior, and examines their differentiated relational pathways in the accumulation of psychological and social resources.

Using survey data from 1244 college students, partial least squares structural equation modeling and necessary condition analysis were combined to examine the relationships among physical activity, psychological capital, social connectedness, and prosocial behavior. The results indicated no significant direct relationship between physical activity and prosocial behavior. However, significant indirect relationships were identified through psychological capital and social connectedness separately, as well as through the sequential pathway from psychological capital to social connectedness.

Necessary condition analysis further indicated that psychological capital was identified as a necessary condition for achieving higher levels of social connectedness, while physical activity, psychological capital, and social connectedness were all identified as necessary conditions for achieving higher levels of prosocial behavior. Theoretically, this study extends the understanding of physical activity from an outcome-oriented health behavior perspective to a resource perspective on the development of social behavior, broadens the explanatory scope of conservation of resources theory in prosocial behavior research, and further elucidates the potential sequential association between psychological and social resources. Practically, the findings provide resource-oriented insights into the use of physical activity to support social adaptation and the development of prosocial behavior among college students, with implications for college physical education and public health practice.

The authors sincerely thank all participants for their time and participation in this study. The authors also thank Mind Garden, Inc. for granting permission to use the Psychological Capital Questionnaire and Professor Richard M. Lee for granting permission to use the Social Connectedness Scale.

Shanghai University of Sport, Shanghai, China Wenxin Ke, Jialiang Chen, Geng Li & Yin Wu Fujian Sports Vocational Education and Technical College, Fuzhou, China Correspondence to Wenxin Ke, Jialiang Chen or Yin Wu. The authors declare no competing interests. This study was reviewed and approved by the Ethics Committee of Shanghai University of Sport (Approval No. 102772025RT185, approved on 1 November 2025).

All research procedures were conducted in accordance with applicable ethical standards and in compliance with relevant institutional and national guidelines for research involving human participants. Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.