In order to explore the chain mediating effect of mindfulness and meaning in life between physical exercise and depression, 954 college students were investigated by physical exercise rating scale, self-rating depression questionnaire, mindfulness scale and meaning in life questionnaire. The results show that: (1) Physical exercise can significantly positively predict mindfulness and meaning in life, and significantly negatively predict depression; (2) The direct effect of physical exercise on depression of college students is not significant, but the indirect effect is significant. It can significantly predict depression of college students through the independent mediating effect of mindfulness and meaning in life, and can also significantly predict depression of college students through the chain mediating effect of mindfulness and meaning in life.

Background: To explore the impact mechanism of physical exercise on the sense of meaning in life of college students, and analyze the chain mediating effect between self-concept and self-control. Methods: A questionnaire survey was conducted on 923 college students in China using the Physical Exercise Rating Scale (PARS-3), Life Meaning Scale, Self Concept Scale, and Self Control Scale. Results: (1) Physical exercise, self-concept, self-control and sense of meaning in life are significantly related to each other; (2) Self-concept and self-control play a chain mediating role between physical exercise and college students’ sense of meaning in life, with an effect value of 0.042, accounting for 5.48% of the total effect. Conclusion: Physical exercise can directly enhance the sense of meaning in life of college students, and can also indirectly enhance it not only through the mediating effect of self-concept and self-control, but also through the chain mediating effect of the two. These results provide theoretical reference for college students to improve their sense of life meaning and mental health education.

In the context of healthy China, the study of the spatial distribution characteristics of urban sports venues is not only beneficial to planning the construction of sports venues in cities, but also to the health protection of urban residents. Therefore, to promote a fair and scientific approach to constructing public fitness sites in the city and meet the needs of urban residents’ fitness activities, this study targeted public fitness sites larger than 10 m² in the main urban area of Jinan City to study spatial distribution characteristics and accessibility. We combine the traffic road network and other data and use spatial and buffer zone analyses to assess the sites from the perspective of different travel modes of urban residents. The results show that the public fitness venues in the main urban area are mainly concentrated centrally; there is no significant pattern between the construction of venue area and population. For the time range of 0–15 min, Lixia District has the highest ratio of public fitness venue service area for walking, cycling, and car travel, with 22.54%, 62.25%, and 100%, respectively, and Changqing District has the lowest. In terms of travel mode, the highest service area ratio is 62.7% for car travel, followed by 28.7% for cycling, and 7.7% for walking. It is concluded that the construction of public fitness venues in Jinan has an unbalanced layout, does not fully consider the population factor, and different modes of travel have a significant impact on accessibility. It is therefore suggested that the government should increase public fitness venue construction in the areas surrounding the main city; moreover, future planning of urban public fitness venues should fully consider the distribution characteristics of population quantity and age in each area. Finally, the main travel mode characteristics of urban residents should also be considered to promote the future scientific development of urban public fitness venue construction.

Subjective well-being is one of the important factors affecting the mental health of college students, and although studies have proven the effectiveness of physical exercise on subjective well-being, the mechanism of the influence of physical exercise on subjective well-being has yet to be studied in depth. Therefore, this study constructed a mechanism model of the influence of physical activity on college students‘ subjective well-being, and used the Physical Activity Scale, Subjective Well-being Scale, Mental Toughness Scale, and Stress Perception Scale to investigate 600 college students, and examined the chain mediating role of mental toughness and stress perception in the relationship between physical activity and college students’ subjective well-being. It was found that (1) there is a significant correlation between physical exercise, mental toughness, stress perception, and college students‘ subjective well-being; (2) mental toughness and stress perception mediate between physical exercise and college students’ subjective well-being; and (3) mental toughness and stress perception chain mediate between physical exercise and subjective well-being. This result suggests that mental toughness and perceived stress not only play independent roles but also chain-mediated roles between physical activity and college students’ subjective well-being.