This study aimed to investigate the relationship between leisure-time physical activity and academic burnout among college students, and the mediating roles of mindfulness and self-esteem in the relationship, so as to provide a reference for alleviating academic burnout among college students. The study used the Physical Activity Rating Scale, the Mindful Attention Awareness Scale, the Self-Esteem Scale, and the Academic Burnout Scale to conduct a questionnaire survey to 629 college students (M = 19.6) through a convenience sampling method. The constructed chained mediation model was tested for path analysis, and mediation effects using SPSS 29.0. The results showed that leisure-time physical activity, mindfulness, self-esteem and academic burnout were significantly correlated with each other. The direct effect of leisure-time physical activity on college students’ academic burnout was not significant, but the indirect effect was significant. Mindfulness and self-esteem had significant mediating effects between leisure-time physical activity and academic burnout among college students, and the mediating effects consisted of the independent mediation of mindfulness and self-esteem and the chain mediating effect between them. Thus, enhancing leisure-time physical activity as an intervention to alleviate academic burnout among college students should focus on the effects on mindfulness perception and self-esteem. By enhancing the levels of mindfulness perception and self-esteem, leisure-time physical activity may play an important role in alleviating the growing academic burnout among college students.

Based on human motivation theory and self-determination theory, this study investigated the impact of coaches’ transformational leadership on athletes’ well-being, and the influences of gender and athletes’ basic psychological needs. The survey objects comprised of 432 athletes participating in the Hebei Games in China. The results showed that coaches’ transformational leadership could significantly and positively predict athletes’ well-being. Basic psychological needs had a mediating effect on the relationship between coaches’ transformational leadership and athletes’ well-being. Gender significantly moderated the effect between athletes’ basic psychological needs satisfaction and subjective well-being. Compared with male athletes, female athletes had their basic psychological needs met, and the improvement in their well-being was more significant than the males. Coaches should adapt their transformational leadership to directly improve athletes’ well-being and indirectly achieve their well-being by satisfying the athletes’ basic psychological needs.

Purpose: This study aimed to investigate the relationship between physical exercise and sleep quality among college students, focusing on the chain mediating roles of perceived stress and ruminative thinking. Participants and Methods: A total of 955 college students completed questionnaires, including the Physical Activity Rating Scale (PARS-3), the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS), and the Ruminative Thinking Response Scale (RRS). The PROCESS macro Model 6 and Bootstrap methods were used to analyze the mediating effects of perceived stress and ruminative thinking. Results: (1) Negative correlations were found between physical exercise and sleep quality (r = − 0.361, p < 0.01), perceived stress (r = − 0.393, p < 0.01), and ruminative thinking (r = − 0.503, p < 0.01). Positive correlations existed between sleep quality and perceived stress (r = 0.477, p < 0.01), as well as between sleep quality and ruminative thinking (r = 0.549, p < 0.01), and perceived stress and ruminative thinking (r = 0.550, p < 0.01). (2) Physical exercise significantly impacted college students’ sleep quality directly, with an effect size of − 0.074. The relative proportion of indirect effects mediated by perceived stress and ruminative thinking was 20.59%, with individual effect sizes of − 0.085 and − 0.135 respectively, accounting for 23.89% and 37.93% of the total effect. (3) Additionally, there was a chain mediation effect with an effect size of − 0.063, representing 17.59% of the total effect. Conclusion: Physical exercise can reduce perceived stress to alleviate ruminative thinking, thereby improving sleep quality. The findings of this study provide a scientific basis for the development of mental health education and intervention strategies in colleges. Colleges should offer diverse physical activities and improve facilities to encourage student participation in exercise. College students should recognize the importance of physical exercise in enhancing sleep quality, actively engage in physical activities, learn psychological adjustment techniques, and cultivate healthy lifestyle habits.

Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) is a critical transitional stage between normal aging and Alzheimer’s disease, and its early identification is essential for delaying disease progression. This study, based on data from the 2020 China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS), focuses on older adults with functional disability as the target population. LASSO regression, combined with univariable and multivariable logistic regression, was employed to select feature variables for predictive modeling. Seven machine learning algorithms, including logistic regression, decision tree, random forest, support vector machine, gradient boosting decision tree, k-nearest neighbors, and neural network, were used to develop predictive models. Model performance was evaluated using accuracy, precision, recall, F1 score, and the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC AUC). The results indicated that residence location, alcohol consumption, life satisfaction, depressive symptoms, and education level are key factors influencing the risk of MCI among older adults with functional disability. Among the models, the neural network achieved the best overall performance (Accuracy: 0.71, Precision: 0.70, Recall: 0.74, F1 Score: 0.72, ROC AUC: 0.80) with stable results across both the training and test sets. This study provides a scientific tool for the early screening of MCI in older adults with functional disability and offers an efficient and scalable predictive model for clinical applications and community health services.

Background: This study aims to investigate the impact mechanism of personality traits on physical education satisfaction among college students, validating the mediating effect of trait flow and the moderating effect of physical education difficulty. By analyzing the influence mechanism of personality traits on college students’ satisfaction with physical education classes, it helps to explore more channels to enhance satisfaction with physical education classes.Methods: A questionnaire survey was conducted using the Big Five Personality Scale, the Physical Education Class Satisfaction Scale, the Trait Fluency Scale, and the Physical Education Class Difficulty Scale with 868 public physical education students in 10 universities in Shanghai. Moderated mediation modeling was conducted using Hayes’ PROCESS macro.Results: Personality traits are positively correlated with physical education satisfaction, and the predictive effect is significant (β = 0.786, p < 0.001). This association is mediated by trait fluency (indirect effect: β = 0.797, p < 0.001), accounting for 62.7% of the total effect. Physical education difficulty significantly moderates the predictive effects of personality traits on physical education satisfaction (β = −0.183, p < 0.01) and trait fluency (β = −0.130, p < 0.001). Additionally, physical education difficulty significantly moderates the predictive effect of trait fluency on physical education satisfaction (β = 0.172, p < 0.001).Conclusion: Personality traits predict physical education satisfaction, with trait fluency playing a mediating role, and physical education difficulty moderates the direct and indirect paths through which personality traits influence physical education satisfaction.