Haopeng Wang, Huarui Huang, Chen Zhong, Yizhou Shui
Athlete participation influences adolescent athlete engagement differently across student groups. Soccer team students' athlete engagement is mainly driven by their own athlete participation. For non-soccer team students, their own athlete participation has only a limited effect on their athlete engagement. Non-soccer team students are more strongly influenced by the role-modeling of soccer team students. These findings highlight the value of strengthening campus soccer teams to mobilize non-soccer team students' sustained engagement in physical activity.
BACKGROUND: Physical inactivity among adolescents has become a global public health concern. Insufficient engagement in sports potentially affects physical and mental health. Athlete engagement, reflecting persistent positive emotional experiences in physical activity, is a key factor in promoting adolescent development. This study investigates how adolescent athlete participation influences athlete engagement within and across different student groups.
METHODS: A total of 4,140 students from 167 soccer-featured schools in China are recruited, comprising 2,070 soccer team students and 2,070 non-soccer team students. Participants complete the Athlete Participation Scale (APS) and the Athlete Engagement Questionnaire (AEQ). Data are analyzed using descriptive statistics, correlation analysis, and the Actor-Partner Interdependence Model (APIM) with latent variables to examine actor and partner effects.
RESULTS: Soccer team students exhibit a significant actor effect on their own engagement (β = 0.824, p < 0.001). However, they do not have a significant partner effect (β = -0.005, p > 0.05). In contrast, non-soccer team students exhibit a statistically significant actor effect. However, the effect size is small (β = 0.045, p < 0.05). Meanwhile, the partner effect is significant (β = 0.518, p < 0.001). The partner effect is stronger than the actor effect. The dyadic pattern analysis classifies the pattern for soccer team students as an actor-only pattern and the pattern for non-soccer team students as a mixed actor-partner pattern.
CONCLUSION: Athlete participation influences adolescent athlete engagement differently across student groups. Soccer team students' athlete engagement is mainly driven by their own athlete participation. For non-soccer team students, their own athlete participation has only a limited effect on their athlete engagement. Non-soccer team students are more strongly influenced by the role-modeling of soccer team students. These findings highlight the value of strengthening campus soccer teams to mobilize non-soccer team students' sustained engagement in physical activity.