Does campus sports environment matter for physical fitness? The mediating roles of peer support and perceived physical literacy.

PURPOSE: Physical inactivity and declining physical fitness among Chinese college students remain important public health concerns. This study examined whether perceived campus sports environment was prospectively associated with physical fitness through peer support and perceived physical literacy, and explored gender differences in key variables.

METHODS

A two-wave prospective observational study was conducted among 1,165 undergraduates (56.3% female; M_age = 19.1 ± 0.89) from five universities in Hubei Province, China. At T1, participants completed measures of perceived campus sports environment, peer support, and perceived physical literacy. At T2, physical fitness was assessed according to the National Student Physical Fitness Standards using sex-specific standardized item scores and the official composite scoring procedure. Descriptive statistics, Pearson correlations, independent-samples t tests, and serial mediation analysis using PROCESS Model 6 with 5,000 bootstrap samples were conducted.

RESULTS

Male students reported significantly higher perceived facility access and peer-support indicators than female students, whereas no significant gender differences were observed in perceived physical literacy or physical fitness. Perceived campus sports environment (r = 0.316), peer support (r = 0.475), and perceived physical literacy (r = 0.662) were all positively associated with physical fitness. Mediation analysis indicated that the association between perceived campus sports environment and physical fitness was indirectly linked through peer support and perceived physical literacy. The indirect pathway via perceived physical literacy accounted for the largest proportion of the total effect (42.42%), followed by the serial pathway through peer support and perceived physical literacy (25.60%) and the pathway via peer support alone (17.58%).

CONCLUSION

These findings suggest that campus sports environment, peer support, and perceived physical literacy should be considered together when interpreting differences in university students' physical fitness. Strategies that foster supportive campus sport cultures and strengthen students' perceived physical literacy may help support physical fitness in university settings, with particular attention to female students' relatively lower perceived facility access and peer-support indicators.