The longitudinal impact of adverse childhood experiences on college students’ intrinsic motivation for physical exercise: the chain mediating effect of meaning in life and psychological resilience

Objective This study aimed to examine the longitudinal association between adverse childhood experiences and college students’ intrinsic motivation for physical exercise and to test the individual mediating and chain mediating effects of meaning in life and psychological resilience in this relationship. Methods Using convenience sampling, a 6-months longitudinal survey was administered to 667 Hunan college students in Oct 2025 (T1) and Apr 2026 (T2). The measurement instruments included the Adverse Childhood Experiences Questionnaire, the Meaning in Life Questionnaire, the Psychological Resilience Scale, and the Situational Motivation Scale (intrinsic motivation subscale). Mplus 8.0 was used to conduct longitudinal measurement invariance testing, and Model 6 of the PROCESS macro in SPSS 27.0 was employed to perform chain mediation analysis. Results T1 adverse childhood experiences significantly negatively predicted T2 intrinsic motivation for physical exercise (β = −0.120, P < 0.01). T2 meaning in life played a significant mediating role between T1 adverse childhood experiences and T2 intrinsic motivation for physical exercise, with an indirect effect value of −0.021, accounting for 17.15% of the total effect. T2 psychological resilience also played a significant mediating role, with an indirect effect value of −0.032, accounting for 26.31% of the total effect. The chain mediating effect of T2 meaning in life and T2 psychological resilience was significant, with an effect value of −0.023, accounting for 19.07% of the total effect. The direct effect of T1 adverse childhood experiences on T2 intrinsic motivation for physical exercise was not significant (β = −0.045, P > 0.05), indicating that the indirect pathways fully accounted for the total association in this model, with the total indirect effect accounting for 62.53% of the total effect. Conclusion Adverse childhood experiences are longitudinally associated with lower levels of intrinsic motivation for physical exercise among college students through the individual mediating pathways of meaning in life and psychological resilience, as well as their chain mediating pathway, with the psychological resilience pathway showing the largest effect size. These findings suggest a pathway through which early adversity may be linked to adult health behavior motivation, providing evidence for integrated physical exercise and mental health interventions in universities.