The Influence of Exercise Goal Content on Adolescents' Subjective Well-being: The Chain Mediating Role of Motivation and Psychological Need Satisfaction

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The Influence of Exercise Goal Content on Adolescents' Subjective Well-being: The Chain Mediating Role of Motivation and Psychological Need Satisfaction

https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-4651634/v1

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A questionnaire survey was conducted among 1043 adolescents by cluster stratified sampling method to explore the influence mechanism of exercise goal content on adolescents' subjective well-being. The results show that: (1) Health management, social affiliation and skill development have significant positive effects on adolescents' subjective well-being; Social recognition has a significant negative impact on adolescents' subjective well-being, while image has no significant impact on adolescents' subjective well-being. (2) Psychological need satisfaction and autonomous motivation for exercise mediate the relationship between intrinsic exercise goals and adolescents' subjective well-being. (3) The mediating effect of psychological need satisfaction and controlled motivation for exercise between extrinsic exercise goals and adolescents' subjective well-being is not established. Different types of exercise goals may have different mechanisms on subjective well-being. In addition, it is necessary to pay more attention to the influence of exercise goals on adolescents' negative emotions in follow-up research.

Biological sciences/Psychology

Health sciences/Medical research

physical exercise

subjective well-being

goal content

motivation

basic psychological need

The mental health problems of Chinese adolescents are becoming more and more serious. According to the Report on the Development of Chinese National Mental Health (2021–2022) released by the Chinese Academy of Sciences, 14.8% of adolescents have different degrees of depression risk(Fu & Zhang, 2021). Adolescents are a group with high risk of mental illness, and their mental health education has been highly concerned by the state, schools, society and families. According to the view of positive psychology, helping adolescents form good self-cognition and construct positive psychological qualities will enable individuals to avoid and overcome problems encountered in the process of development and have the ability to "actively" obtain well-being. Subjective Well-Being (SWB) is an evaluation of one's own quality of life according to one's personal standards, and a comprehensive index to measure one's quality of life and mental health(E. & A., 1984). It usually includes three dimensions: satisfaction, positive emotion and negative emotion. There is no doubt that physical exercise can promote individuals to produce positive psychological benefits, and the relationship between physical exercise and subjective well-being has attracted much attention from researchers. As an important factor affecting individual exercise participation, exercise goal content can explain and predict individual health level and exercise behavior(Li, 2015, Xiang, 2014). Previous studies have confirmed that exercise motivation and psychological need satisfaction play a single mediating role in the relationship between exercise goal content and subjective well-being(Li, 2015, Xiang, 2014, Gunnell & Crocker et al., 2014). However, when exercise motivation and psychological need satisfaction are both mediating variables, the chain effect of them on the relationship between goal content and well-being remains to be further investigated(Xiang, 2014, Sebire & Standage et al., 2009). However, relative intrinsic goal index failed to reflect the mechanism of intrinsic goal pursuit and extrinsic goal pursuit affecting adolescent subjective well-being. It has certain practical guiding significance for improving teenagers' subjective well-being.

Goal Content Theory(GCT), as one of the six sub-theories of Self-Determination Theory (SDT), usually explores how different goal contents (intrinsic goals and extrinsic goals) affect individual well-being and behavioral outcomes(Ryan & Deci, 2017, Sebire et al., 2009). The intrinsic goal pursuit can enhance the individual's well-being and psychological adaptability, and help to promote mental health, while the extrinsic goal pursuit may bring negative emotions, reduce well-being or have nothing to do with well-being, resulting in psychological maladjustment(Zhang & Zhang et al., 2017, Ye & Lu et al., 2019). The exercise goals that individuals set for their own internal development are internal exercise goals, such as social relations, skill development and health management, and the exercise goals set for external recognition are external exercise goals, such as body image and social praise(Sebire & Standage et al., 2008). The exercisers with internal exercise goals (e.g., enjoyment or competition) are more inclined to engage in social exercise through fitness techniques to improve their well-being level, while the exercisers with external exercise goals (e.g., image) are negatively related to the social characteristics of exercise, which is not conducive to the development of individual well-being level(James & Deane et al., 2019).

SDT postulates that humans have three basic psychological needs: Autonomy, Competence, and Relatedness(Ryan & Deci, 2017). The individual's need for autonomy reflects the need to experience self-approval and voluntary activities; the need for competence implies the need to effectively deal with one's environment; and the need for relatedness includes experiencing a sense of belonging and attachment to others(Ryan & Deci, 2017). Basic psychological needs are one of the influencing mechanisms of goal content. Different types of goals will promote or hinder the satisfaction of psychological needs, and the satisfaction degree of psychological needs can further predict the level of individual well-being(Zhang et al., 2017, Chen & Liu et al., 2020). The pursuit of intrinsic goals will produce an intrinsic tendency conducive to the satisfaction of psychological needs, thus showing better psychological adaptability, while the pursuit of extrinsic goals will cause an external tendency, which will focus on accumulating self-worth through external affirmation, thus reducing or hindering the satisfaction of psychological needs(Chen & Vansteenkiste et al., 2015). When psychological needs are satisfied, individuals will experience a strong sense of competence, be more satisfied with their interpersonal relationships, and ultimately promote mental health and subjective well-being(Ryan & Deci, 2002, Ryan & Deci, 2017). The research shows that basic psychological needs can also be used as a mediator to influence the relationship between exercise goal content and adolescents’ physical exercise behavior and subjective vitality(Xiang, 2014, Zhang & Xi, 2010). Therefore, satisfaction of psychological needs may be one of the mediating mechanisms of exercise goal content affecting subjective well-being。

In addition, exercise goal content can indirectly affect adolescents' subjective well-being through motivation(Zhao & Zhang et al., 2016). Organic Integration Theory (OIT)(Ryan & Deci, 2017) divides motivation into autonomous and controlled according to the degree of self-determination. Goal content has different effects on autonomous motivation and controlled motivation, the more prominent the self-development goal (intrinsic goal), the more positive the effect on autonomous motivation, and the more obvious the protective goal (extrinsic goal), the stronger the effect on controlled motivation(Ganotice & Downing et al., 2020). In addition, autonomous motivation and controlled motivation are interrelated with physical activity and well-being. Autonomous motivation can promote exercise behavior and well-being, while controlled motivation can inhibit exercise behavior and well-being(Fenton & Van Zanten et al., 2021). Therefore, exercise motivation mediates the relationship between exercise goal content and adolescent subjective well-being.

Exercise motivation and basic psychological needs may play a mediating role in the mechanism of exercise goal's influence on subjective well-being, but the order of their action still needs to be further explored. Motivation, needs and well-being are interrelated, forming a cycle or spiral, so it is difficult to distinguish the causal relationship between needs and motivation(Gunnell et al., 2014, Deci & Ryan, 2000, Milyavskaya & Koestner, 2011). The basic psychological needs theory holds that psychological needs are the most proximal variables affecting well-being, changes in psychological needs satisfaction can directly predict changes in well-being, and psychological needs satisfaction may no longer need an intermediary mechanism to promote well-being(Gunnell et al., 2014). However, some studies based on Vallerand's hierarchical model of internal-extrinsic motivation have confirmed that motivation can buffer the relationship between basic psychological needs and behavioral or emotional outcomes(Milyavskaya & Koestner, 2011, Ng & Ntoumanis et al., 2012). These findings contradict the above view of the basic theory of psychological needs, which suggests that "needs" point to something and "motivations" point to goals(Gopalan & Valarmathie et al., 2017). Motivation is a factor closer to behavioral goal than need. After an individual produces a behavioral goal, motivation causes and maintains an individual's specific goal to carry out activities, thus satisfying the individual's desire or desire for a certain goal. According to the motivation theory of cognitive theory, the adolescent's exercise goal, as a motivational variable, should first be related to exercise motivation, and then have an impact on the satisfaction of individual psychological needs. Therefore, As for the mechanism of exercise goal content affecting SWB, this study tends to predict psychological need satisfaction by motivation, among which, intrinsic exercise goal can positively predict individual autonomous exercise motivation, and exert positive influence on psychological need satisfaction through autonomous exercise motivation, thus improving adolescent SWB level; External exercise goals can positively predict controlled exercise motivation and negatively affect psychological needs satisfaction through controlled exercise motivation, thus reducing adolescents' subjective well-being.

This study combined GCT,OIT and Basic Psychological Needs Theory(BPNT) to investigate the sequential relationship among exercise goal content, exercise motivation, psychological needs satisfaction and subjective well-being(Ryan & Deci, 2017). Specifically, the main purpose of this study is to explore the relationship between exercise goal content and adolescent subjective well-being, whether exercise motivation and basic psychological needs play a role in the relationship between the two, and what is the order of the effect of exercise motivation and basic psychological needs, and on the basis of the previous questions, to construct a mechanism model of exercise goal content on adolescent subjective well-being (see Fig. 1).As can be seen from the model plot, this paper will test the following hypotheses in subsequent studies:

H1: Internal exercise goals positively predict adolescent subjective well-being, while external exercise goals negatively predict adolescents' subjective well-being.

H2: Exercise motivation and psychological needs satisfaction play a chain mediating role in the relationship between exercise goals and adolescents' subjective well-being.

H2a: Autonomous exercise motivation and psychological needs satisfaction play a chain mediating role in the relationship between intrinsic exercise goals and adolescents' subjective well-being.

H2b: Controlled exercise motivation and psychological need satisfaction play a chain mediating role in the relationship between external exercise goals and adolescents' subjective well-being.

3.1 Participants and procedure

Participants were 324 Chinese adolescents, which were selected by stratified cluster sampling, 499 (47.8%) males, 544 (52.2%) females, 241 (23.1%) grade one students, 180 (17.3%) grade two students, 118 (11.3%) grade three students, 233 (22.3%) grade one students, 154 (14.8%) grade two students and 117 (11.2%) grade three students. The mean age of participants was 15.53 years (range = 13–18years, SD = 0.50) and all participants had Chinese nationality.

Data were collected at high school during regular school time. Before data collection, teachers were given instructions regarding the administration of the questionnaires. Afterwards, teachers administered the questionnaires in their own class, while the research staff was available during 5 min in each classroom to answer students’ questions and to point out possible difficulties with regards to the items.

3.2. Measures

3.2.1. Exercise Goal Content

Goal Content for Exercise Questionnaire(GCEQ)(Sebire et al., 2008). was composed of two factors: intrinsic exercise goal and extrinsic exercise goal. The intrinsic exercise goal included three sub-factors: health management, skill development and social affiliation, while the extrinsic exercise goal included two sub-factors: image and social recognition. There were 20 items in total. Likert 7-point score was used, ranging from "1 (very inconsistent)" to "7 (very consistent)". By confirmatory factor analysis of first-order measurement model, 14 items were retained, χ² = 188.27, df = 67, χ² / df = 2.810, RMSEA = 0.042, CFI = 0.98, TLI = 0.97, normalized factor loads ranged from 0.62 to 0.84, Cronbach’s alpha of all subfactors ranged from 0.74 to 0.86.

3.2.2. Exercise Motivation

Willson's Exercise Behavior Regulation Scale (BREQ)(Philip & M. et al., 2006)was used in this study. It consisted of 6 factors: lack of regulation, external regulation, introspective regulation, identity regulation, integrative regulation and internal regulation. There were 23 items in total. Likert 5-point score was used, ranging from "1 (completely inconsistent)" to "5 (completely consistent).". By confirmatory factor analysis, 20 items were retained, χ² = 568.54, df = 155, χ² / df = 3.67, RMSEA) = 0.051, CFI = 0.95, TLI = 0.94, normalized factor loads ranged from 0.61 to 0.81. In this study, Cronbach’s alpha of all subfactors ranged from 0.71 to 0.84. Exercise motivation was divided into autonomous motivation and controlled motivation, in which autonomous motivation =(identification regulation + integration regulation + internal regulation)/3, controlled motivation =(external regulation + introspection regulation)/2 (Wilson & Sabiston et al., 2012).

3.2.3. Basic Psychological Needs

Chen et al's Basic Psychological Needs Scale (BPNS) was used, which included autonomy needs, ability needs and relationship needs. There were 12 items in total. Likert 5-point score was used, ranging from "1 (completely inconsistent)" to "5 (completely consistent)". 8 items were retained by confirmatory factor analysis, χ² = 44.46, df = 17, χ² / df = 2.62, RMSEA = 0.039, CFI = 0.99, TLI = 0.99, normalized factor loads ranged from 0.66 to 0.87. Cronbach’s alpha of all subfactors ranged from 0.77 to 0.85.

3.2.4. Subjective Well-Being

The measurement tool for SWB is a combination of Satisfaction With Life Scale(SWLS)(Diener & Emmons et al., 1985) and Positive Affect and Negative Affect Scale(PANAS)(Watson & Clark et al., 1988).SWLS is a one-dimensional scale developed by Diener et al., with 5 items, scored by Likert 7 points, ranging from "1 (completely inconsistent)" to "7 (completely consistent).". 4 items retained by confirmatory factor analysis, χ² = 6.51, df = 2, χ² / df = 3.26, RMSEA = 0.047, CFI = 0.99, TLI = 0.99, normalized factor load between 0.61 and 0.80, Cronbach’s alpha of SWLS is 0.78. PANAS was compiled by Watson et al., including positive affect and positive affect, a total of 20 items, using Likert 5-point score, from "1 (completely inconsistent)" to "5 (completely consistent)". By confirmatory factor analysis, 10 items were retained, χ² = 126.35, df = 34, χ² / df = 3.72, RMSEA = 0.051, CFI = 0.97, TLI = 0.96, standardized factor load was between 0.61 and 0.84, Cronbach’s alpha of positive and negative emotions were 0.82 and 0.77 respectively. In this study, subjective well-being score = general life satisfaction standard score + positive emotion standard score-negative emotion standard score(Kifer & Heller et al., 2013).

3.3. Plan of analysis

Cluster stratified sampling method was used in this study. The questionnaires were distributed and collected on the spot. SPSS 24.0 and Amos 24.0 were used to analyze the data. Firstly, the reliability and validity of the research tools were tested. Secondly, structural equation modeling method was used to investigate the direct effect of exercise goal content on subjective well-being and the mediating effect of exercise motivation and psychological need satisfaction on subjective well-being. Finally, the mediation effect was further tested by Bias-Corrected Bootstrap method.

All methods were carried out in accordance with relevant guidelines and regulations. Informed consent was obtained from all subjects and their legal guardians. All experimental protocols were approved by Physical Education College of Hunan University of Technology.

4.1 Common method deviation test

All variables were measured by questionnaire, so Harman's single factor method was used to test the common method bias of data. All items of exercise goal content, exercise motivation, psychological need satisfaction and subjective well-being were analyzed by unrotated principal component factor analysis. The results showed that there were 16 common factors with eigenvalue greater than 1, and the variance explained by the first factor was 24.20%, which was lower than the critical value of 40%. Therefore, there are no serious common method bias problems in this study.

4.2 Descriptive statistics and correlation analysis between variables

Table 1 lists the mean, standard deviation and correlation coefficient matrix of each variable. The results show that there is no significant correlation between controlled exercise motivation and health management, social affiliation, skill development, life satisfaction, positive emotion and subjective well-being; there is no significant correlation between image and life satisfaction and subjective well-being; there is no significant correlation between social recognition and negative emotion; there is significant correlation between other variables.

Table 1

Descriptive statistics and correlation coefficient matrix
	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12
1 Health management	1
2 Social interaction	.42***	1
3 Skills development	.61***	.55***	1
4 Social recognition	.28***	.50***	.32***	1
5 Image	.22***	.31***	.13**	.56***	1
6 Autonomous Exercise Motication	.53***	.53***	.67***	.35***	.21***	1
7 Controlled Exercise Motivation	− .03	.07	− .01	.21***	.18**	.09*	1
8 psychological needs met	.33***	.39***	.38***	.28***	.28***	.52***	.10*	1
9 Life satisfaction	.27***	.31***	.36***	.12*	.04	.39***	.010	.42***	1
10 Positive emotion	.32***	.44***	.46***	.24***	.15**	.54***	.03	.50***	.52***	1
11 Negative emotion	− .12*	− .14*	− .19**	.06	.10*	− .18**	.16**	− .12*	− .24***	− .34***	1
12 Subjective well-being	.31***	.39***	.44***	.13*	0.04	.49***	-0.05	.46***	.77***	.82***	− .70***	1
M	5.91	4.72	5.52	4.24	4.53	3.69	2.42	3.68	3.68	2.68	4.82	0
SD	1.02	1.42	1.28	1.39	1.48	0.76	0.73	0.60	0.86	0.93	1.17	1
Note: p < 0.05, * p < 0.01, *** p < 0.001.

4.3 Model checking

Exercise motivation is divided into two obvious variables: autonomous exercise motivation and controlled exercise motivation. Exercise goal content and psychological needs satisfaction are latent variables. Subjective well-being is obvious variable. The first step is to test the direct effect of exercise goal content on subjective well-being. The direct effect model is constructed with five sub-factors of exercise goal content as independent variables and subjective well-being as dependent variable. The results show that χ² = 197.73, df = 76, χ² /df = 2.60, RMSEA = 0.039, CFI = 0.98, TLI = 0.97, the direct effect model fits well overall. The path coefficients of five exercise goals to subjective well-being are: health management (β = 0.22, p < 0.001), social affiliation (β = 0.46, p < 0.001), Skill Development (β = 0.43, p < 0.001), social recognition (β=-0.26, p < 0.001) and appearance image (β=-0.01, p > 0.05). The second step is to examine the chain mediating effect of exercise motivation and psychological need satisfaction between exercise goal content and subjective well-being.²= 716.49, df = 255, χ² /df = 2.81, RMSEA = 0.042, CFI = 0.96, TLI = 0.95, chain mediated model fit well.

The results of chain mediation model show that health management → autonomous exercise motivation (β = 0.15, p = 0.005), social affiliation → autonomous exercise motivation (β = 0.25, p < 0.001), skill development → autonomous exercise motivation (β = 0.43, p < 0.001), social recognition → controlled exercise motivation (β = 0.18, p < 0.001), image → controlled exercise motivation (β = 0.08, p > 0.05), autonomous exercise motivation → psychological needs to meet (β = 0.76, p < 0.001), autonomous exercise motivation → psychological needs satisfaction (β = 0.76, p < 0.001), controlled exercise motivation → psychological needs satisfaction (β=-0.04, p > 0.05), autonomous exercise motivation → subjective well-being (β = 0.05, p > 0.05), controlled exercise motivation → subjective well-being (β=-0.07, p > 0.05), psychological needs satisfaction → subjective well-being (β = 0.72, p < 0.001). The chain mediation model diagram is as follows (see Fig. 2).

Further testing the mediating effect of all paths in the chain mediating model, using the percentile Bootstrap method of bias correction, repeated sampling 5000 times, 95% confidence interval estimation. The results showed that the mediating effect of health management →autonomous exercise motivation → psychological needs satisfaction was significant, and the effect value was 0.029(t = 1.93, p = 0.012), social interaction → autonomous exercise motivation → psychological needs satisfaction has significant mediating effect, with effect value of 0.035(t = 3.182, p < 0.001). The mediating effect of skill development →autonomous exercise motivation → psychological needs satisfaction was significant, and the effect value was 0.057 (t = 3.563, p < 0.001). The mediating effect of health management →autonomous exercise motivation → psychological needs satisfaction→ subjective well-being was significant, and the effect value was 0.245 (t = 1.885, p = 0.020); social affiliation → autonomous exercise motivation → psychological needs satisfaction→ subjective well-being had a significant mediating effect, with effect value of 0.298(t = 2.980, p = 0.001); skill development →autonomous exercise motivation → psychological needs satisfaction→ subjective well-being had a significant mediating effect, with effect value of 0.485(t = 3.277, p < 0.001). From Table 2, it can be seen that the 95% confidence interval of each path mediation effect does not contain 0, so the mediation path of the above five paths is established.

Table 2

Analysis of mediating effects
path	effect value	SE	t	p	95% CI
path	effect value	SE	t	p	Lower 2.5%	Upper 2.5%
HM→AM→BPNS	0.029	0.015	1.933	0.012	0.006	0.066
SA→AM→BPNS	0.035	0.011	3.182	***	0.016	0.061
SD→AM→BPNS	0.057	0.016	3.563	***	0.032	0.096
HM→AM→BPNS→SWB	0.245	0.130	1.885	0.020	0.038	0.547
SA→AM→BPNS→SWB	0.298	0.100	2.980	0.001	0.149	0.531
SD→AM→BPNS→SWB	0.485	0.148	3.277	***	0.283	0.846
Note: p < 0.05, * p < 0.01, *** p < 0.001; Non-normalized effect values and their standard errors were calculated using a bias corrected Bootstrap sample of 5000;HM: Health Management; SA:Social affiliation; SD: Skill Development; AM: Self-motivated exercise; BPNS: Psychological Needs Satisfaction; SWB: Subjective Well-Being.

This study found that:1. Health management, social affiliation and skill development as intrinsic exercise goals positively predict adolescent subjective well-being, while image as extrinsic exercise goals negatively predict adolescents' subjective well-being; 2. Internal exercise goals positively predict adolescents' subjective well-being through chain mediation of autonomous exercise motivation and psychological needs satisfaction, while external exercise goals predict adolescents' subjective well-being through chain mediation of controlled exercise motivation and psychological needs satisfaction.

5.1. The direct predictive effect of exercise goal content on adolescents' subjective well-being.

The results showed that health management, social affiliation and skill development could positively predict adolescents' subjective well-being, social recognition could negatively predict adolescents' subjective well-being, and image had no significant effect on adolescents' subjective well-being.

This study confirms that exercise goal content is an important factor affecting adolescents' well-being, and different exercise goals have different predictive effects on subjective well-being. Goal content theory holds that the more external goals are valued or prioritized over internal goals, the lower the level of well-being experienced(Ryan & Deci, 2017). The effect of goal content on well-being is east and west cultural background. The following is confirmed. The higher the importance of intrinsic goals, the better the health status, while the pursuit of extrinsic goals will reduce life satisfaction and have a weak relationship with well-being(Ye et al., 2019, Zhao et al., 2016, Li, 2015, Santana-Monagas & Nunez, 2022). Although existing studies have confirmed that the effect of target content on well-being is culturally universal, there are few related studies in the field of exercise psychology in China. Therefore, this study provides an empirical basis for cross-cultural research on the relationship between exercise target content and subjective well-being. On the other hand, if adolescents participate in physical exercise for external goals such as improving appearance and gaining recognition from others, they will experience lower subjective well-being(Xiang, 2014). Therefore, teachers and parents should guide teenagers to set internal exercise goals in physical education and family life, so as to effectively promote their mental health.

In addition, this study found that the appearance image effect is not significant, this result is not consistent with previous research results, which may be related to the psychological development stage of adolescents and the educational philosophy or model of China's basic education stage(Lin, 2002). First of all, adolescents are not fully integrated into society and are less influenced by secular values. Economic success and appearance are not the concerns of this age group(Lin, 2002). Secondly, adolescents are in a period of sudden change in physical and mental development, with a strong sense of independence and autonomy, individuals are extremely eager to be respected and recognized by the outside world, and they pay great attention to the evaluation and views of teachers and parents(Lin, 2002). Under the influence of examination-oriented education concept, Chinese schools and families attach great importance to teenagers' academic achievements and tend to regard achievement as the main standard to measure students' progress(Xu, 2022). In order to gain the approval of parents and teachers, teenagers pay more attention to improving their academic performance, so they pay little attention to their own appearance.

5.2. Mediating effect of exercise motivation and psychological needs satisfaction

The results show that: (1) in the first mediating path, the chain mediating effect of intrinsic exercise goal on subjective well-being is established through autonomous exercise motivation and psychological need satisfaction, and psychological need satisfaction plays a complete mediating role between autonomous exercise motivation and subjective well-being; (2) In the second mediating path, the chain mediating effect of external exercise goals on subjective well-being through controlled exercise motivation and psychological need satisfaction is not established, so this study will further explain the influence effect of exercise motivation and basic psychological need satisfaction from the different results of the two chain mediating paths.

The first mediating path indicates that the chain mediation between autonomous exercise motivation and psychological needs satisfaction is complete, which further confirms that exercise motivation can be used as a predictor of basic psychological needs to regulate individual mental health. Previous studies have disputed whether motivation predicts needs or needs predict motivation. Some studies regard basic psychological needs as predictors of motivation, and believe that the satisfaction of autonomous needs, ability needs and relationship needs is conducive to the internalization of external motivation, Helps develop autonomous motivation(Liu & Han et al., 2023, Zhao et al., 2016). However, some other studies regard motivation as a predictor of psychological needs, and think that basic psychological needs is the psychological factor closest to exercise behavior, and basic psychological needs as a mediating variable can buffer the influence of exercise motivation on exercise behavior(Li, 2015). This study supports the view that motivation precedes basic psychological needs from the perspective of motivation-needs. Motivational appeal can predict the level of psychological needs, among which, autonomous motivational appeal is related to the degree of psychological needs satisfaction, and controlled motivational appeal is related to the degree of psychological needs blockage(Santana-Monagas & Nunez, 2022). Psychological need satisfaction mediates the influence of adolescents 'academic autonomy motivation on life satisfaction and learning engagement(Guo, 2018). From this we can see that Motivation is generated in the process of goal pursuit, and the closer the distance to the goal is, the greater the motivation power of the goal. Under the regulation of motivation, psychological needs are satisfied to a certain extent, which can promote subjective well-being(Carver & C. et al., 1998, Srivastava & Locke et al., 2001). Therefore, this study verifies that the motivation of autonomous exercise can be used as a predictor of psychological need satisfaction to regulate the level of individual mental health, and provides an empirical basis for the causal relationship between motivation and need. In real life, we should not only pay attention to helping teenagers form their internal exercise goals, but also pay attention to the cultivation of their independent exercise motivation, giving full play to the role of independent exercise motivation, which is conducive to meeting the basic psychological needs of adolescents and promoting the development of their mental health level.

Although social affiliation positively predicted controlled exercise motivation, image did not significantly predict controlled exercise motivation, and controlled exercise motivation did not significantly predict psychological need satisfaction and subjective well-being. Different types of target content will promote or hinder the satisfaction of individual psychological needs. Therefore, The pursuit of internal goals will produce an internal tendency to promote the satisfaction of psychological needs, thus producing good psychological adaptability and well-being; while the pursuit of external goals may cause an external tendency to encourage individuals to pay more attention to external affirmation and realize the accumulation of self-worth, hindering the satisfaction of psychological needs(Sebire et al., 2009, Chen et al., 2015). There is no consistent conclusion on the relationship between external goals and well-being under the mediation of psychological need satisfaction. Some studies believe that the setting of external goals will increase individual external desires, weaken the satisfaction of psychological needs and reduce the level of well-being(Chen & Yao et al., 2014). However, other studies have shown that the pursuit of external goals has no correlation with the satisfaction of individual psychological needs, because highly materialized external goals will reduce individual autonomy and lead to individual lack of competence and security(Zhang et al., 2017). This controversy may be due to extrinsic goals as a more context-related factor that enhances an individual's psychological needs than reduces their satisfaction. This finding suggests a future direction: Basic psychological needs block and basic psychological needs satisfaction are independent concepts, and basic psychological needs block may be closely related to individual control motivation or demotivation(Longo & Gunz et al., 2016). Because low levels of psychological need satisfaction are not the same as high levels of psychological need blocking, the two may produce different results (Huyghebaert-Zouaghi & Ntoumanis et al., 2021, Waaler & Halvari et al., 2013). There are different mechanisms of possible psychological need satisfaction and psychological need block on subjective well-being.

First, in variable processing, motivation variables are divided into autonomous motivation and controlled motivation, but motivation types are not divided in detail, and subsequent studies can be divided into six categories according to motivation regulation model, such as identity regulation and integration regulation, in order to further explore the impact of motivation. It is difficult to make causal inference. Follow-up studies can further explore the causal relationship between psychological need satisfaction and psychological need satisfaction through multiple time points. Secondly, this study only studies psychological need satisfaction from the perspective of integrity, and follow-up studies can further study the three subfactors of psychological need satisfaction from the perspective of independence, synergy and balance. Finally, It is necessary to pay more attention to the influence of exercise goal content on adolescents' negative emotions in the future. Adolescents pay more attention to the evaluation of the outside world and others, and adolescents tend to pursue external goals rather than internal self-growth. Therefore, adolescents are often in an unstable state of emotion in the process of pursuing independence and highlighting themselves, and negative emotions such as depression and depression are easy to occur. Negative emotion and other variables make it relate to external exercise goals and controlled motivation, so as to construct a more complete mechanism model of exercise goal content.

Author Contribution

Li Jun：Writing-review & editing;Validation;Resources;Project administration;Conceptualization;Liu Yefan：Writing-Original draft;Methodology;Investigation;Data curation;Chen Yujie：Software;Data curation;Visualization;Liu Xiaoming：Supervision;Funding;Resources;Validation;

Data Availability

Data is provided within the manuscript or supplementary information files.

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The Influence of Exercise Goal Content on Adolescents' Subjective Well-being: The Chain Mediating Role of Motivation and Psychological Need Satisfaction

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