Survey links personality, sport commitment and exercise during COVID-19

Structural equation modeling indicated that sport commitment partially mediated the associations of neuroticism and extraversion with exercise behavior, while producing a suppression effect in the conscientiousness model. Researchers used snowball sampling and analyzed three sets of measures: the Chinese Big Five Inventory–Brief Version for personality, the Revised Sport Commitment Scale for Exercise Contexts for sport commitment, and the Exercise Behavior Scale for exercise behavior. Group differences and correlations were examined using SPSS 23.0, and structural equation modeling was conducted in AMOS 24 to assess the proposed relationships among personality, sport commitment and exercise behavior.

The analysis found significant gender differences across all five personality dimensions and all indicators of exercise behavior. Among the sport commitment dimensions, however, involvement opportunities did not differ significantly by gender, with a p-value of 0.919. Exercise behavior was not significantly associated with agreeableness, with a p-value of 0.319, and openness was not significantly associated with sport commitment, with a p-value of 0.427.

These nonsignificant results do not establish the absence of a relationship, but they provide no statistical support for those particular associations in the model. Neuroticism was negatively associated with both sport commitment and exercise behavior. By contrast, the structural models indicated that sport commitment partially mediated the associations between extraversion and exercise behavior and between neuroticism and exercise behavior.

The results therefore distinguish among several statistical patterns: two partial mediation relationships, one suppression relationship and two associations that were not statistically significant. It also cannot determine the temporal order of commitment and exercise or show that an intervention would change either. The authors proposed that physical-activity approaches could consider neuroticism-related barriers, social engagement for people lower in extraversion and the strengthening of sport commitment, but the survey itself did not test the effectiveness of those approaches.

Subject of Research: Associations among Big Five personality traits, sport commitment and exercise behavior during the COVID-19 public health emergency

Article Title: Big Five personality traits and exercise behavior during public health emergencies: The mediating role of sport commitment

Article References: Cheng, Z., & Wu, X. (2026). Big Five personality traits and exercise behavior during public health emergencies: The mediating role of sport commitment. BMC Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40359-026-05567-2

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.1186/s40359-026-05567-2

Keywords: Big Five personality traits, sport commitment, exercise behavior, COVID-19, neuroticism, extraversion, conscientiousness, structural equation modeling, questionnaire study, Five, personality, traits