Objective This study examined the association between adolescents' perceived task value in sport and exercise adherence, as well as whether this association was explained by a serial mediation pathway through general self-efficacy and action planning. Methods A questionnaire-based cross-sectional survey was conducted from September 15 to December 15, 2025. Participants were 572 Chinese secondary-school students recruited from Tianjin, Guangxi, Hebei, and Liaoning. Measures assessed perceived task value in sport, general self-efficacy, action planning, and exercise adherence. Pearson correlations were computed, and a serial mediation model was tested using SPSS PROCESS (Model 6) with standardized coefficients and 5,000 bootstrap resamples to generate bias-corrected 95% confidence intervals (CIs). Results Perceived task value in sport was positively correlated with general self-efficacy ( r = 0.184), action planning ( r = 0.238), and exercise adherence ( r = 0.372; all p 0.001). General self-efficacy correlated with action planning ( r = 0.324) and exercise adherence ( r = 0.321), and action planning correlated with exercise adherence ( r = 0.291) (all p 0.001). Perceived task value predicted general self-efficacy (β = 0.184, p 0.001) and, with general self-efficacy, predicted action planning (β = 0.185 and β = 0.290, respectively; both p 0.001). In the final model, all three predicted exercise adherence (β = 0.296, β = 0.218, and β = 0.150, respectively; all p 0.001). Bootstrap analyzes supported partial mediation: the total effect was β = 0.372 (95% BootCI 0.296, 0.449) and the direct effect remained significant at β = 0.296 (95% BootCI 0.221, 0.372). All indirect pathways were significant: the general self-efficacy path (0.040, 95% BootCI 0.019, 0.067), the action planning path (0.028, 95% BootCI 0.010, 0.052), and the serial path via general self-efficacy and action planning (0.008, 95% BootCI 0.003, 0.016); the total indirect effect was 0.076 (95% BootCI 0.044, 0.114). Conclusion Adolescents who perceive higher task value in sport report stronger exercise adherence, both directly and indirectly through greater general self-efficacy and more concrete action planning. Interventions may enhance adherence by strengthening task value perceptions, building efficacy through mastery experiences and feedback, and training adolescents to formulate feasible action plans.
Zhang et al. (Thu,) studied this question.
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