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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Psychol.
Sec. Sport Psychology
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1511807
This article is part of the Research Topic Towards a Psychophysiological Approach in Physical Activity, Exercise, and Sports-Volume IV View all articles

The effect of sports participation on the social identity of Chinese university students

Provisionally accepted
Shuyu JI Shuyu JI 1Shuwei Chen Shuwei Chen 2*Xiannan Yang Xiannan Yang 1*Tongshang Liu Tongshang Liu 1*Xiaolin Wang Xiaolin Wang 3
  • 1 College of Physical Education and Sports, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China
  • 2 Institute of Athletic Training Science, Capital University of Physical Education and Sports, beijing, China
  • 3 Department of Sport Studies, Faculty of Educational Studies, Putra Malaysia University, Selangor Darul Ehsan, Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Objective: Strengthening youth sports and comprehensively promoting the participation of Chinese university students in sports to enhance their social acceptance are key initiatives for delivering highquality talent for China's economic and social development.Using the China Comprehensive Social Survey as the data source and considering social mentality and social identity, we constructed corresponding statistical models to explore how sports participation influences the social identity (class identity, economic status, and emotional belonging) of Chinese university students.Results: Regarded from a holistic perspective, sports participation can enhance the social identity of college students in all its aspects, and the benefits of sports participation are positively related to its frequency. Under the condition of social mentality, sports participation has a positive effect on the social identity of college students in general and a nonsignificant effect only on certain dimensions.Under the social identity condition, the significance of sports participation for college students' social identity decreases from lower to higher levels of education.Sports participation significantly enhances the social identity of Chinese university students, and the specific mechanism of the enhancement varies across the social mentality and social identity conditions. In this context, strengthening the role of sports participation in promoting the social identity of college students in the new era is necessary. Deepening the ideological content of physical education courses should be taken as the starting point to enhance the effectiveness of sports participation on the social identity of college students under the condition of social mentality. The effectiveness of sports participation on the social identity of college students with different social identities should be differentiated and enhanced.

    Keywords: Sports participation, Social identity, social mindset, Chinese, university students

    Received: 16 Oct 2024; Accepted: 08 Nov 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 JI, Chen, Yang, Liu and Wang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence:
    Shuwei Chen, Institute of Athletic Training Science, Capital University of Physical Education and Sports, beijing, China
    Xiannan Yang, College of Physical Education and Sports, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China
    Tongshang Liu, College of Physical Education and Sports, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China

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