Effects of Physical Activity on College Students’ Subjective Well-Being During COVID-19

Background The COVID-19 outbreak has caused widespread psychological distress to Chinese college students. To explore the beneficial psychological effects of physical activity, this study accessed the relationship of Physical Activity (PA) and Subjective Well-being (SWB) among Chinese college students during the pandemic. Methods A total of 1198 college students (aged between 17 and 40) from 8 universities in Wuhan, China, volunteered to finish the online questionnaire survey from February 17 to 20, 2020. General Well-Being Schedule (GWBS) was used to evaluate SWB, and Physical Activity Rating Scale-3 (PARS-3) was used to measure PA. The Mann–Whitney U test, χ 2 test, t test, and analysis of variance were used to compare the differences between groups based on different data types. A multi-factor linear regression analysis was performed on the factors affecting college students' participation in physical activity during the pandemic. Differences were considered statistically significant when p