Relationship Among Physical Activity, Self-efficacy and Subjective Well-being of the Elderly: A Cross-Sectional Study

Background With the increasing pressure of a global aging population, ensuring and improving the well-being of the elderly is directly related to social harmony and stability. In the field of exercise psychology, the relationship between physical activity and subjective well-being has attracted much attention, but research on the elderly group has been rarely reported. Therefore, the presented paper aims to investigate the effect of physical activity on the subjective well-being of the elderly and reveal the role of self-efficacy between physical activity and subjective well-being. Methods By means of Physical Activity Rating Scale (PARS-3), General Self-efficacy Scale (GSES), and Subjective Well-being Scale (SWS), a questionnaire survey was conducted among 780 elderly people in Chongqing, China. And the data were processed and analyzed by SPSS 21.0 and AMOS 21.0 statistical software. Results 1) Compared with females, elderly males possessed a higher amount of physical activity, self-efficacy and subjective well-being. There were significant differences in urban and rural areas and BMI for physical activity, which indicated that the old people in urban and the aged with normal BMI had higher amount of physical activity; 2) The amount of physical activity was positively correlated with self-efficacy (r = 0.41, P < 0.001) and subjective well-being (r = 0.29, P < 0.001), and self-efficacy was positively correlated with subjective well-being (r = 0.26, P < 0.001); 3) In the male model, physical activity exhibited a direct effect on subjective well-being ( ES  = 0.20), and self-efficacy had a partial mediating effect between physical exercise and subjective well-being ( ES  = 0.071); In the female model, physical activity had a direct effect on subjective well-being ( ES  = 0.26), and self-efficacy played a partial mediating role in physical exercise and subjective well-being ( ES  = 0.066). Conclusion For both the old male and female, actively participating in physical activity can not only directly improve their subjective well-being, but also indirectly promote their subjective well-being through the action of self-efficacy.