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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Sport Psychology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1395298
This article is part of the Research Topic Physical Education, Health and Education Innovation-Vol III View all articles
What Athletics Bring Us? A Qualitative Research Based on John Ma's Thought of "The Transfer Value of Athletics" --Evidence From Chinese University Graduates
Provisionally accepted- 1 East China Normal University, Shanghai, Shanghai Municipality, China
- 2 Tsinghua University, Beijing, Beijing, China
As part of the last stage of education, university sports impact all aspects of students' lives. However, while the value of athletics is not confined to the field, sports researchers have mostly focused on the educational value of athletics, and there is no comprehensive framework for the transfer value of athletics (TVA). As Tsinghua University is considered the flagship of Chinese university sports, this research aims to develop a comprehensive TVA framework by analyzing the memoirs of graduates from Tsinghua in "Tsinghua Sports Influenced My Life" using grounded theory. In the memoirs, most of the graduates mentioned that the educational value of sports had been transferred into their lives. The findings also demonstrate that the TVA framework consists of five dimensions: competencies, quality, health, personality, and behavior. Analyzing the TVA framework demonstrates that there are three steps for generating TVA: Students participate and enjoy sports, they develop physical literacy, and then transfer the physical literacy into their lives. The memoirs also demonstrate that the formation mechanisms of the TVA include: 1) School sports culture that enables students to establish a positive view of athletics; 2) sports clubs and competition systems that develop students' physical literacy; and 3) physical educators and legitimate peripheral participation in the community that transfers physical literacy to daily life. This study reveals the value of college sports to students' lives and provides guidance for universities to develop well-rounded individuals through sports.
Keywords: Transfer value, athletics, Physical Education, grounded theory, University sports
Received: 03 Mar 2024; Accepted: 05 Mar 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Wan, Liu, Yin, Guo and Liu. 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:
Zhihua Yin, East China Normal University, Shanghai, 200062, Shanghai Municipality, China
Bo Liu, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, Beijing, China
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