Network analysis of physical activity, exercise health beliefs, and three dimensions of the good life: identifying central and bridge nodes

Positive psychology has typically examined subjective well-being, meaning in life, and psychological richness as separate outcomes, leaving unclear how these dimensions of the good life relate to physical activity and exercise-specific health beliefs within a common system. This cross-sectional study estimated an 11-node regularised partial-correlation network from a Spearman correlation matrix among 673 Chinese college students. The nodes represented physical activity, six dimensions of exercise health beliefs, and four observed indicators spanning the three dimensions of the good life: subjective well-being, presence of meaning, search for meaning, and psychological richness.

Expected influence (EI) quantified each node’s overall signed connectivity, whereas bridge expected influence (Bridge EI) quantified signed connectivity across five prespecified theoretical communities. Edge-weight accuracy and the case-dropping stability of EI and Bridge EI were assessed using bootstrap procedures, and alternative community partitions were examined in sensitivity analyses. The estimated network was characterised predominantly by positive conditional associations.

Presence of meaning showed the highest EI, followed by psychological richness and perceived exercise benefits. Under the a priori five-community specification, psychological richness, presence of meaning, and subjective well-being showed the highest Bridge EI values. The bridge ranking of psychological richness declined under alternative partitions, whereas presence of meaning remained comparatively prominent across specifications.

EI and Bridge EI both demonstrated high case-dropping stability (correlation-stability coefficient = 0.75 for each). These findings position the presence of meaning as the most broadly connected node in the estimated network and show that conclusions about psychological richness as a statistical bridge depend partly on community definition. The results generate hypotheses concerning meaning-oriented and experientially varied physical-activity components, but longitudinal studies are needed to establish temporal ordering, and experimental studies are needed to determine whether incorporating such components produces changes in connected outcomes.

The authors thank all students who participated in the study and the instructors and research assistants who assisted with questionnaire administration and data collection. This research was supported by the Social and Science Planning Project of Shandong Province (No. 21CTYJ12). Department of Sports Science, College of Education, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China School of Tourism and Sports Health, Guilin University, Guilin, China School of Physical Education, Shandong University, Jinan, China The authors declare no competing interests.

This study was approved by the Medical Ethics Committee of the School of Basic Medical Sciences, Shandong University (Approval No. ECSBMSSDU2021-1-115) on 30 December 2021, before the commencement of data collection. All procedures involving human participants were performed in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki and applicable institutional guidelines and regulations.