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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Sport Psychology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1546754
This article is part of the Research Topic Psychological Factors in Physical Education and Sport - Volume V View all 21 articles
How psychological resilience shapes adolescents' sports participation: the mediating effect of exercise motivation
Provisionally accepted- 1 Chengdu Sport University, Chengdu, China
- 2 Jingshan Primary School, Changshou, Chongqing, China
Objective: This study aimed to examine the relationships among psychological resilience, exercise motivation, and sports participation in adolescents, with a focus on demographic differences, the mediating role of exercise motivation, and structural invariance across gender.Methods: A total of 2,588 adolescents from grades 7 to 12 were recruited using stratified random sampling, ensuring representation across school levels and rural-urban residence. Demographic differences were analyzed using independent sample t-tests and one-way ANOVA. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was employed to conduct mediation analysis and multi-group invariance testing. Results: Significant demographic differences were observed. Males reported higher levels of psychological resilience, exercise motivation, and sports participation compared to females (p < 0.001). High school students demonstrated greater psychological resilience and exercise motivation, whereas middle school students exhibited higher sports participation. Rural adolescents outperformed urban counterparts across all key variables (p < 0.001), highlighting the influence of environmental factors on adolescents’ physical activity. The mediation analysis confirmed that exercise motivation significantly mediated the relationship between psychological resilience and sports participation, with indirect effects accounting for 60.26% of the total effect (p < 0.001). Model fit indices (CFI, TLI, RMSEA, SRMR) demonstrated a good model fit, supporting the validity of the proposed relationships. Structural invariance testing further indicated consistent relationships across genders, affirming the robustness and generalizability of the model.Conclusion: These findings highlight the importance of psychological resilience and exercise motivation in promoting adolescents’ sports participation. The study provides empirical evidence and practical insights for designing targeted interventions to support diverse demographic groups and enhance long-term physical activity engagement among adolescents.
Keywords: psychological resilience, Exercise motivation, Sports participation, adolescents, demographic differences, structural invariance
Received: 17 Dec 2024; Accepted: 21 Mar 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Peng, Chen, Wang and Yu. 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:
Hongshen Wang, Chengdu Sport University, Chengdu, China
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