Gamification as a Means of Increasing Students' Motivation for Physical Activity

Abstract

Sustaining students' motivation for physical activity is a central challenge in university physical education. Gamification addresses this challenge by structuring participation around clear goals, progress feedback, achievable challenges, rewards, and social interaction. Objective: This study examines the relationship between students’ exercise patterns and psychological well-being and uses this evidence to develop a mathematically specified gamification framework for strengthening motivation, engagement, and sustained participation in university physical activity. Methods: Data came from the 2021 Chinese General Social Survey. The analytic sample included 313 enrolled tertiary students aged 18-30 years. Exercise frequency ranged from never to daily, and elevated depressive mood was defined as feeling depressed or down at least sometimes during the previous four weeks. Binary and ordinal regression models adjusted for age, sex, household registration, socioeconomic position, and education type. In addition to the observational models, a mathematical framework is specified for evaluating gamified physical-education interventions through repeated measures of motivation and activity adherence. Results: Weekly-or-more exercise was reported by 65.8% of students, while 23.5% met the elevated depressive-mood threshold. Weekly-or-more exercise was not significantly associated with elevated depressive mood after adjustment (OR = 0.86, 95% CI 0.48-1.55, p = .615). The ordinal model likewise showed no dose-response association (OR = 0.95, 95% CI 0.77-1.17, p = .628). Conclusions: Exercise frequency alone did not distinguish students by depressive mood, indicating that frequency is an incomplete description of participation. For gamified physical education, motivation should be modeled directly through documented design features and repeated motivational outcomes rather than inferred from activity frequency. The CGSS does not measure gamification or exercise motivation, so the proposed framework requires controlled testing in university PE settings with longitudinal follow-up where possible.