{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,7]],"date-time":"2026-10-07T15:59:02Z","timestamp":1791388742069,"version":"4.3.3"},"reference-count":58,"publisher":"Frontiers Media SA","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,6,2]],"date-time":"2026-06-02T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1780358400000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["frontiersin.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Front. Public Health"],"abstract":"<jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Background<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>Improving levels of physical activity (PA) benefits health and well-being and contribute to attainment of global non-communicable diseases targets and a number of the sustainable development goals. While objective socioeconomic status (OSS) is recognized as a significant factor influencing PA, research on subjective socioeconomic status (SSS) remains limited, particularly regarding the impact of the discrepancy between SSS and OSS (subjective status underestimation, SSU). Consequently, this study investigates the relationship between SSS, SSU and PA in China.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Methods<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>Using data from 42,442 respondents across five waves of the Chinese General Social Survey (CGSS), we assessed how SSS and SSU are associated with PA and the underlying behavioral and cognitive mechanisms driving this relationship while exploring variations in these effects across age groups.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Results<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>The findings indicate that SSS was positively associated with PA, whereas SSU showed a negative association with PA. Although the association of SSS was weaker than that of OSS, SSU still diminished the positive relationship of OSS improvement on PA. For behavioral mechanisms, higher SSS and lower SSU were associated with more leisure frequency, and higher SSS further reduced overtime work. Although higher SSU increased part-time work, this indirect effect was not significant. For cognitive mechanisms, SSU inhibits PA by reducing social trust and perceived fairness and by increasing perceived hostility, whereas SSS promotes PA only through reducing perceived hostility. Additionally, the heterogeneity analysis results indicates that while SSS positively correlated with PA across all cohorts, its effect was comparatively stronger among younger adults (ages 18\u201335). Conversely, SSU was negatively associated with PA in younger groups but exhibited a positive association among older adults.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Conclusion<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>This study demonstrates how SSS and SSU are associated with PA, highlighting the critical role of subjective perceptions. Enhancing population PA requires interventions targeting both objective conditions and subjective cognitive mechanisms.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.3389\/fpubh.2026.1850111","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,6,2]],"date-time":"2026-06-02T04:28:36Z","timestamp":1780374516000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":1,"title":["The effects of subjective socioeconomic status and its underestimation on physical activity: evidence from China"],"prefix":"10.3389","volume":"14","author":[{"given":"Guo","family":"Ziyu","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Economics and Management, Shanghai University of Sport","place":["Shanghai, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Duan","family":"JiaQi","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Physical Education, Shandong University","place":["Jinan, Shandong, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Yang","family":"Qian","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Economics and Management, Shanghai University of Sport","place":["Shanghai, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1965","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,6,2]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"219","DOI":"10.1016\/S0140-6736(12)61031-9","article-title":"Effect of physical inactivity on major non-communicable diseases worldwide: an analysis of burden of disease and life expectancy","volume":"380","author":"Lee","year":"2012","journal-title":"Lancet"},{"key":"ref2","year":"2024"},{"key":"ref3","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"447","DOI":"10.1590\/S0120-41572014000300014","article-title":"Physical activity levels among Colombian adults: inequalities by gender and socioeconomic status","volume":"34","author":"Gonz\u00e1lez","year":"2014","journal-title":"Biomedica"},{"key":"ref4","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"112","DOI":"10.1177\/1403494817713123","article-title":"Time trends in absolute and relative socioeconomic inequalities in leisure time physical inactivity in northern Sweden","volume":"46","author":"Szilcz","year":"2018","journal-title":"Scand J Public Health"},{"key":"ref5","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"188","DOI":"10.1186\/s12939-021-01533-z","article-title":"Socioeconomic inequalities in physical activity in Brazil: a pooled cross-sectional analysis from 2013 to 2019","volume":"20","author":"Ferrari","year":"2021","journal-title":"Int J Equity Health"},{"key":"ref6","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"859","DOI":"10.1123\/jpah.2019-0355","article-title":"Physical activity clusters and income inequality in Brazilian adults","volume":"17","author":"Manta","year":"2020","journal-title":"J Phys Act Health"},{"key":"ref7","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1332","DOI":"10.1186\/s12889-019-7610-7","article-title":"Age moderates the effect of socioeconomic status on physical activity level among south Korean adults: cross-sectional analysis of nationally representative sample","volume":"19","author":"Lee","year":"2019","journal-title":"BMC Public Health"},{"key":"ref8","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1680","DOI":"10.1186\/s12889-025-22867-1","article-title":"Effects of weight status, sex, age, sedentary behavior, pubertal status and socioeconomic status on the physical activity of children and adolescents","volume":"25","author":"Weimann","year":"2025","journal-title":"BMC Public Health"},{"key":"ref9","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"123","DOI":"10.1016\/j.archger.2017.01.004","article-title":"A structural equation model of the relation between socioeconomic status, physical activity level, independence and health status in older Iranian people","volume":"70","author":"Mosallanezhad","year":"2017","journal-title":"Arch Gerontol Geriatr"},{"key":"ref10","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"144","DOI":"10.1186\/s12889-016-3880-5","article-title":"What explains the socioeconomic status gap in activity? 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