Longitudinal associations between physical exercise and psychological resilience among college students: A random-intercept cross-lagged panel model

Physical exercise is closely associated with psychological resilience, yet the temporal direction and within-person dynamics of this relationship remain unclear. This study examined the longitudinal association between physical exercise and psychological resilience among Chinese college students and tested whether it differed by sex. A three-wave longitudinal survey was conducted among students from universities in four provincial-level regions of China. Physical exercise and psychological resilience were assessed using the Physical Activity Rating Scale and the Connor–Davidson Resilience Scale, respectively. A total of 1451 valid participants were included at baseline, of whom 913 completed all three waves. At the between-person level, physical exercise was significantly and positively associated with psychological resilience. At the within-person level, physical exercise positively predicted subsequent psychological resilience across both time intervals, whereas the reverse association was small and observed only from T1 to T2. Multi-group analyses showed no significant sex differences in the autoregressive or cross-lagged paths. These findings extend the longitudinal evidence on the relationship between physical exercise and psychological resilience, reveal the dynamic nature of their within-person associations across the two time intervals, and suggest that physical exercise may be an important behavioral factor supporting the maintenance and development of psychological resilience among college students.