The psychological mechanisms of fitness app gamification in promoting college students' exercise engagement: Multiple mediating roles of basic psychological needs and self-efficacy.

Drawing upon an integrative framework of Self-Determination Theory (SDT) and Social Cognitive Theory (SCT), this study investigated the influence mechanism of perceived exercise app gamification affordances on college students' exercise engagement, testing the multiple mediating roles of basic psychological needs in exercise and exercise self-efficacy. Analysis of 403 valid questionnaires using structural equation modeling and the Bootstrap method (5000 resamples) revealed that perceived exercise app gamification affordances were positively associated with exercise engagement (β = 0.475, p < .001). Basic psychological needs in exercise (indirect effect = 0.116, 95% CI [0.063, 0.183]) and exercise self-efficacy (indirect effect = 0.048, 95% CI [0.012, 0.103]) each played a significant independent mediating role. Furthermore, a sequential chain mediation pathway was identified, wherein basic psychological needs in exercise and exercise self-efficacy jointly mediated the relationship, though this indirect effect was statistically significant yet modest in magnitude (indirect effect = 0.028, 95% CI [0.009, 0.057]). These findings indicate that perceived exercise app gamification affordances are associated with enhanced exercise engagement by simultaneously satisfying fundamental motivational needs and enhancing cognitive efficacy beliefs, with the latter also being partially contingent upon the former. This dual-pathway model provides an integrative theoretical account for gamified exercise interventions and offers practical implications for optimizing app design and university physical education practices. Because all data were collected at a single time point, these pathways should be interpreted as candidate mechanisms that are consistent with the data rather than as confirmed causal sequences.