Enhancing home-based exercise behavior: the mediating role of exercise attitude and self-efficacy between exercise motivation and fitness apps use among university students

In the post-pandemic era, home online fitness has surged, with sports and fitness mobile applications (SFMA) becoming crucial for promoting physical exercise among home-based university students. The purposes of this study were to examine the internal mechanisms of exercise motivation, exercise attitude, exercise self-efficacy, and SFMA use among home-based university students. This study included 826 home-based university students (males = 412, age M = 18.93, SD = 0.97) who responded to questionnaires assessing exercise motivation, exercise attitude, exercise self-efficacy, and SFMA use. Data were analyzed using IBM SPSS Statistics 22.0 and Process 4.0, with significance levels set at p < 0.05. The results showed that (1) frequent SFMA users exhibited higher exercise motivation, exercise attitude, and exercise self-efficacy than occasional or rare users; (2) exercise motivation predicted SFMA use through exercise attitude and exercise self-efficacy. (3) A chain mediation analysis indicated two pathways through which exercise motivation was associated with SFMA use: (a) exercise motivation→exercise self-efficacy→SFMA use, accounting for 41.89% of the total effect, and (b) exercise motivation→exercise attitude→exercise self-efficacy→SFMA use, accounting for 25.95% of the total effect. This study elucidates the underlying mechanism of SFMA engagement, underscoring the psychological drivers that promote health behaviors. Education departments and schools should integrate participants’ intrinsic motivation into the development of evidence-based exercise guidelines.