Inwoo Kim

Introduction: Given the critical role of interpersonal dynamics in competitive collegiate team sports, understanding the psychological mechanisms that foster athlete loyalty is essential for long-term team success. This study investigated the structural relationship between coaches' transformational leadership and collegiate athletes' affective team commitment, focusing on the mediating role of intrateam communication and the moderating effect of intrinsic motivation. Methods: Data were collected from 362 male university soccer players in South Korea. Hayes' PROCESS macro (Model 7) was employed to test the proposed moderated mediation model, utilizing 5,000 bootstrap resamples for significance testing. Results: The results indicated that transformational leadership was positively associated with team commitment both directly and indirectly through intrateam communication. Furthermore, the association between transformational leadership and communication was significantly contingent upon the athlete's level of intrinsic motivation. Simple slope analysis revealed that while the positive association between transformational leadership and communicative dynamics remained positive across all motivation levels, its magnitude was significantly weaker at lower levels (-1 SD) and reached its strongest level at higher levels (+1 SD) of intrinsic motivation. Finally, the integrated moderated mediation model was confirmed, as the strength of the indirect pathway via communication strengthened as motivation rose. Discussion: These findings suggest that intrinsic motivation functions as a psychological catalyst that is linked to a stronger relationship between transformational leadership and a robust communicative environment, ultimately strengthening the emotional bond between athletes and their teams. The results emphasize the importance of considering individual motivational profiles when evaluating transformational leadership strategies relation to team commitment.

Background: As the global population ages, fostering adaptive capacities to resolve daily challenges has become a critical public health priority. While older adults’ participation in physical activity is known to promote healthy aging, the psychological processes through which it may be associated with practical life skills in older adults remain under-explored. Objective: This study investigated the sequential associations between participation in physical activity and life skills in older adults, focusing on the roles of resilience and ego integrity. Methods: A total of 279 older adults participated in this study. Older adults’ participation in physical activity was assessed based on the World Health Organization (WHO) threshold of 150 min of moderate-intensity activity per week. Resilience, ego integrity, and life skills in older adults were measured using validated scales. Data were analyzed using Hayes’ PROCESS Macro (Model 6) to test the hypothesized sequential association model. Results: The results indicated that physical activity was positively associated with resilience, which was in turn associated with both ego integrity and life skills in older adults. While the indirect path through ego integrity alone was non-significant, physical activity maintained a significant direct association with life skills. Most importantly, a statistically significant sequential indirect association was observed between physical activity and life skills through resilience and ego integrity. Conclusion: These findings suggest that resilience may represent an important psychological factor associated with the relationship between behavioral engagement and broader psychological development, ultimately being associated with the practical competencies required for successful aging. To maximize the enhancement of life skills in older adults, physical activity interventions should be intentionally designed to foster psychological resilience as a supportive factor for developmental processes in later life.

Introduction: Transformational leadership is crucial for team functioning and cohesion in sports, yet the psychological mechanisms, specifically the role of trust, linking this leadership style to team outcomes in competitive university contexts remain under-investigated. This study, therefore, examined the associations and potential mediating roles of cognitive and affective trust in the relationship between athletes’ perceptions of transformational leadership and team task cohesion. Methods: Data were collected from 362 male university soccer players affiliated with the Korea University Sports Federation (KUSF) using stratified sampling and standardized self-report instruments. To examine the hypothesized relationships, we employed structural equation modeling (SEM), focusing on the direct and indirect effects of cognitive and affective trust as potential mediators. Results: The analysis indicated that transformational leadership had no significant direct association with team task cohesion. However, cognitive trust was found to function as the sole significant mediator in this relationship. Although affective trust was positively associated with transformational leadership and cognitive trust, it did not significantly relate to task cohesion. Furthermore, cognitive trust significantly predicted affective trust, consistent with a unidirectional sequence from rational appraisal to emotional bonding. Discussion: These findings offer empirical support for the pivotal role of cognitive trust as a foundational mediator that simultaneously facilitates performance-oriented outcomes and interpersonal attachment in university sports. Specifically, the results extend theoretical understanding by clarifying that cognitive trust serves as a critical gateway, linking transformational leadership to both greater team task cohesion and the progressive development of affective trust among athletes. Practically, the results emphasize that coaches must prioritize consistent, competent, and fair leadership behaviors to cultivate cognitive trust; this strategic focus activates a dual psychological pathway that effectively enhances task-oriented cohesion while also strengthening the long-term emotional stability of the team.

This study examined the mediating role of intrinsic motivation in the relationship between perceived parental support and the intention to continue sport among Korean university football players. Using a sample of male university athletes registered with the Korea Football Association, structural equation modeling was applied to test a mediation model grounded in self-determination theory. Participants completed questionnaires measuring parental support, intrinsic motivation, and intention to continue sport, using 7-point Likert scales. The results showed that parental support did not have a significant direct effect on sport continuation intention, but it had a significant positive effect on intrinsic motivation. In turn, intrinsic motivation strongly predicted the intention to continue sport. Mediation analysis confirmed that intrinsic motivation fully mediated the relationship between parental support and sport continuation intention, indicating that parental support influences athletes' long-term engagement exclusively through the enhancement of intrinsic motivation. The proposed model showed strong predictive validity and accounted for a substantial portion of the variance in sport continuation intention. These findings highlight that fostering intrinsic motivation is essential for sustaining athletic commitment and that parental influence operates primarily through motivational pathways. This study contributes to the sport psychology literature by empirically demonstrating the psychological mechanisms behind athletic persistence in a university context and suggests practical strategies for designing interventions that support sustained sport participation among collegiate athletes.

Research on the stress and burnout experienced by athletes in the esports field remains limited, necessitating an approach that considers the unique environment and circumstances of esports athletes. This study aims to explore the conceptualization of burnout experiences among professional esports athletes. The participants included 88 athletes from the League of Legends Championship Korea (LCK). Among these, in-depth interviews were conducted with 7 athletes who had experience in international tournaments (the World Championship), while an open-ended survey was completed by 81 athletes. Data collected through in-depth interviews and an open-ended survey were digitized and utilized for analysis. Through critical review by another author and inductive categorization, the conceptual components of esports athletes’ burnout were derived. Through the analysis of 251 raw datum, it was conceptualized into five conceptual factors: performance, overtraining, interpersonal relationships, physical and psychological exhaustion, and career and motivation. The results of this study confirm that esports athletes, like athletes in other conventional sports, experience burnout during their careers, highlighting issues in their unique environment, particularly in aspects of interpersonal relationships and training and rest conditions. This research can serve as a foundational resource for effective athletes’ psychological health management in the esports field and underscores the need for further research on burnout among esports athletes.

The phenomenon of adolescents engaging in less physical activity as they age raises several concerns. Among these, we hypothesized that this trend may negatively impact their mental health and smartphone dependency. Thus, the aim of this study was to longitudinally examine the mediating effect of smartphone dependency in the relationship between adolescents’ exercise time and subjective well-being. For analysis, publicly available data from the 2018 Korean Children and Youth Panel Survey were utilized, with a total of 2,242 participants’ data included in the analysis. Latent growth modeling results revealed a significant linear decrease in adolescents’ exercise time and subjective well-being each year, while smartphone dependency exhibited an increasing trend. Furthermore, the significance tests of indirect effects indicated that the mediating effect of the changing trend in smartphone dependency between the changing trends in exercise time and subjective happiness in adolescents was statistically significant. These findings suggest that as grade levels increase, reducing exercise time can lead to higher smartphone dependency among adolescents, ultimately resulting in decreased subjective well-being.

The aim of present study was to examine the mediating effect of presenteeism on the relationship between emotional labor and work engagement of coaches for disability sports. A total of 198 coaches in Korea participated in this study. Participants responded a survey measuring emotional labor, presenteeism, and work engagement. After analyzing the correlation between each variable, the mediation model was verified through structural equation model analysis. The results reveal that emotional labor of coaches for disability sports positively predicted their work engagement, but negatively predicted presenteeism. In addition, the participants’ presenteeism can have a negative effect on their work engagement. Moreover, completing work in presenteeism was found to mediate the relationship between the deep acting and surface acting in emotional labor and work engagement of disability sports coaches.

This study aimed to verify the influence of autonomy and self-control as psychological factors on the changes in lifestyles of inactive college students by participating in regular exercise. A total of 188 university students in Seoul, Korea, taking physical fitness classes for 5 weeks held three times a week participated in the surveys. Surveys were conducted in the first session (T1) and 15th session (T2) of the classes. Autonomy in exercise participation and self-control were measured at T1, and healthy lifestyle was measured at both T1 and T2. A paired t-test was used to measure the changes in healthy lifestyle between two time points, and hierarchical regression analysis was conducted to determine the effect of autonomy in exercise participation and self-control measured at T1 on the healthy lifestyle score at T2. According to the analysis, participants’ healthy lifestyles were improved with a statistically significant difference between pre- and post-exercise. Furthermore, the levels of autonomy and self-control before the fitness classes positively influenced the participants’ healthy lifestyle after the classes even when the influence of healthy lifestyle measured before the classes was controlled. Thus, it was confirmed that autonomy for participation and self-control are important to change one’s healthy lifestyle through regular exercise participation.

The purpose of the present study is to examine the deviant behaviors of young athletes the using extended theory of planned behavior (TPB) and impulsivity. About 536 middle and high school athletes in South Korea answered a set of questionnaires that measured their attitude, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control, intention, ethical obligation, and impulsivity. Structural equation model (SEM) analysis revealed that the extended TPB model is adequate to explain deviant behaviors in sports. Further, the underlying intentions that motivate the deviant behaviors of athletes in sports were significantly predicted by perceived behavioral control and moral obligation. Findings also suggested that the intention for deviant behaviors in sports more readily manifests as an actual act when the impulsivity scores are high. Theoretical contributions and practical implications are addressed in the Discussion section.

The aim of the present study was to examine the impact of the changes in physical self-concept induced by exercise participation on the changes in global self-esteem and mental well-being using a structural model analysis. A total of 189 university students in Seoul, Korea, participated in the present study for two waves. The participants responded through a survey measuring physical self-concept, self-esteem, and mental well-being before and after a six-week exercise course. Regression analysis was used to calculate the amount of change in each variable, and the calculated residual scores were used for correlation analysis and structural model analysis. The amounts of changes in the variables are significantly correlated with each other and there was a complementary mediating effect of the changes in self-esteem on the pathway from the changes in physical self-concept to the changes in mental well-being. Physical self-concept changed by exercise participation might directly and positively influence mental well-being, and it can indirectly influence the changes in mental well-being via the improvement of self-esteem.