Gameful experience, exercise identity, and exercise adherence among Chinese university students: A moderated chain mediation model

Background Gamified fitness applications have grown in popularity, yet it remains unclear how gameful experience, defined as users’ subjective perception of game-like engagement during app-supported exercise, is associated with exercise adherence. Methods A cross-sectional survey was conducted among N  = 300 Chinese university students who were active users of gamified fitness applications. Data were collected via an online questionnaire platform (Questionnaire Star) from March 5 to April 5, 2026. Participants completed validated measures of gameful experience (GAMEX), exercise identity (EI), exercise habit formation (EHF), intolerance of uncertainty (IU), and exercise adherence (EA). A moderated chain mediation model was tested using hierarchical regression analysis and bias-corrected bootstrap resampling (5,000 iterations). An indirect effect was considered statistically different from zero when its 95% confidence interval excluded zero. Results Gameful experience was positively associated with exercise adherence ( β = .264, p   → EI → EA (effect = .065, 95% CI [.020, .114]); GAMEX → EHF → EA (effect = .043, 95% CI [.002, .087]); and GAMEX → EI → EHF → EA (effect = .085, 95% CI [.054, .123]). IU moderated the GAMEX–EI association ( β = .237, p   Δ R 2 = .036); the estimated chain indirect effect ranged from .034 (95% CI [.001, .072]) at low IU to .136 (95% CI [.080, .201]) at high IU. These estimates describe conditional associations and do not establish causal or temporal ordering. Conclusions The findings are consistent with the hypothesized ordering of gameful experience, exercise identity, exercise habit formation, and adherence, while alternative causal orderings remain possible. The moderation result suggests that IU may be a useful boundary condition to examine in longitudinal and experimental studies of identity-supportive app features.