Exploring the Associations of Physical Activity, Social Support, and Psychological Resilience in College Students: A Network Analysis

Objectives: Psychological resilience is crucial to individual adaptation. Prior variable-based studies ignored node interactions. This study used network and regression approaches to analyze associations among physical activity, social support and college students’ psychological resilience, screening core nodes and intervention targets. Methods: A total of 969 college students were investigated via cross-sectional survey. The International Physical Activity Questionnaire-Short Form (IPAQ-SF), the Social Support Scale (SSS), and the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC) were adopted to measure physical activity, social support and resilience. Network analysis, multiple linear regression, mediation and moderation models were applied for data processing. Results: Network analysis revealed that physical activity, social support, and psychological resilience formed clustered modular networks. “Individual Ability” was the central node with maximum strength (Strength = 1.302) and expected influence (EI = 1.261). “Perceived Social Support” served as the critical bridge between the physical activity and resilience modules, with the highest bridge expected influence (BEI ≈ 2.0). Regression analysis showed “Perceived Social Support” greatly predicted resilience (β = 0.258, p < 0.001), and partially mediated the relationship between high-intensity physical activity and resilience (indirect effect = 0.0047, 95% CI [0.0013, 0.0082]). Furthermore, gender significantly moderated the direct effect of social support on resilience (interaction B = 0.4717, p = 0.014), with a stronger positive association observed in females (B = 2.39) than in males (B = 1.92). Conclusion: Physical activity and social support tightly correlate with psychological resilience. Combined internal and external resource interventions and gender-differentiated resilience improvement strategies are suggested for college students.