Impact of sports participation on life satisfaction among internal migrants in China: The chain mediating effect of social interaction and self-efficacy

To investigate the influence of sports participation on the life satisfaction of internal migrants and its internal mechanism. A total of 579 valid samples were obtained from the 2017 Chinese General Social Survey data. The correlations among physical exercise, watching games (live), social interaction, self-efficacy, and life satisfaction were examined using Pearson correlation analyses. A chain mediating model was tested utilizing the PROCESS macro for IBM SPSS Statistics. (a) Two forms of sports participation, physical exercise and watching games (live), are shown to impact the life satisfaction of internal migrants in China, though different mechanisms drive these effects; (b) the chain mediating effects of social interaction and self-efficacy in the relationship between sports participation and life satisfaction are established; and (c) self-efficacy is shown to be a mediator between physical exercise and life satisfaction but does not play a mediating role in the case of watching games (live). This research indicates that sports participation can significantly influence the life satisfaction of internal migrants in China through the sequential mediation of social interaction and self-efficacy.