Abstract
BACKGROUND: Student motivation and their mental wellness are key determinants of academic success in higher education. Among diverse strategies to support these outcomes, engagement in physical activity emerges as a particularly effective approach for promoting students' psychological well-being and sustaining their motivation. To further examine a complex interplay among these variables, we investigated the influence of physical activity (PA) on students' academic motivation (AM) through their mental health (MH) in light of self-determination theory (SDT). METHODS: Implementing a quasi-experimental research design, we recruited 450 students and engaged them in a daily running practice for four months to examine its impact on their MH and AM. We assessed AM using an adapted version of the academic motivation scale (AMS), MH using the mental health and well-being scale (MWBS), and PA using the adapted version of the physical activity questionnaire for adolescents (PAQ-A) at three time points: prior to, midway through, and following the intervention. We analyzed the data both descriptively (via mean and standard deviation) and inferentially, employing two-way repeated measures ANOVA and structural equation modeling as our statistical approaches. RESULTS: The intervention substantially improved students' MH and AM, with extrinsic motivation (EM) consistently surpassing intrinsic motivation (IM) across all time intervals. The study also demonstrates a substantial influence of PA through MH on AM over time, with a greater mediating effect on EM (ꞵ= 0.17, p < 0.01) than IM (ꞵ= 0.12, p = 0.01). The findings suggest that students are more influenced by external motivators, such as grades and their career projections, than by the intrinsic enjoyment of learning. CONCLUSIONS: The consistent dominance of EM underscores the need for educational strategies that balance external incentives with opportunities to foster IM, emphasizing autonomy, competence, and personal growth. Additionally, the positive impact of running practice through MH on both types of motivation suggests that incorporating psychological support into regular PA programs can enhance student academic engagement and psychological wellbeing. The findings further suggest ways to meet the intrinsic needs of students to cultivate their internal desire to learn.