Wonju Lee

Purpose: The 2023 Korean American National Sports Festival served as a platform to showcase participants' resilience to the COVID-19 pandemic and its aftermath as well as to promote resilience. Employing the compensatory model of resilience theory, this study aimed to examine how an ethnic sporting event's promotive factors, including ethnic identity and perceived benefits, are associated with participants' resilience to COVID-19 and their mental health. Design/methodology/approach: Five researchers employed a convenience sampling approach for on-site data collection at the 2023 Korean American National Sports Festival in New York City, held from June 23 to 25, 2023. A self-administered survey resulted in 193 usable responses from Korean Americans, with the data analyzed using structural equation modeling. Findings: The results indicated that ethnic identity had a positive influence on perceived community resilience, which in turn led to increased subjective well-being. In addition, the physical health benefits of the event enhanced both individual and community resilience and reduced anxiety levels. Community resilience has a mediating role in the relationship between ethnic identity and subjective well-being. Originality/value: This study demonstrates that ethnic sporting events not only serve as platforms for cultural cohesion but also function as vital tools for promoting mental health within diasporic communities. As small- and medium-scale ethnic sports festivals continue to evolve, ensuring their social inclusivity and expanding collaboration with regional ethnic organizations will be key strategies for enhancing the mobilization of ethnic resources and sustaining community well-being.

Research on student motivation and achievement is often limited to a single theoretical perspective, limiting our understanding of the motivational processes that influence student learning. The purpose of this study is to propose and test a model integrating expectancy value theory and achievement goal theory to examine how motivational processes influence achievement outcomes among sport management undergraduate students. A repeated-measures research design was employed, with 154 undergraduate students enrolled in a sport law course completing two surveys. A three-step analytic process was conducted using latent profile analysis, multinomial logistic regression, and structural equation modeling. The results support four latent profiles reflecting students’ achievement goal orientations. Regression analysis demonstrated students’ initial interest and self-efficacy in the course predicted their achievement goal profile. Structural equation modeling provided support for students’ perceived cost and task value of the course mediating the relationship between their achievement goal profiles and achievement outcomes. Practical implications for teaching and learning, and curriculum and program design are proposed.

Physical activity (PA) has significant health benefits for people with disabilities (PWD). The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends a minimum amount of PA, yet PWD face barriers to meeting them. Guided by the leisure constraints model, previous research has identified constraints and facilitators affecting PA participation but has not considered that PWD may have different experiences based on their PA levels. This study examined the constraint and facilitator profiles of PWD across three different levels of PA participation, focusing on PWD enrolled in adaptive sport or PA programs. Multinomial regression was used to analyze 690 online survey responses distributed by Move United. The results highlighted that, among three constraint levels, intrapersonal constraints were more critical for meeting PA recommendations than interpersonal and structural constraints. This suggests heterogeneous constraint and facilitator profiles of PWD, highlighting tailored services to accommodate their activity levels and needs.

This paper proposes the application of Yosso’s Community Cultural Wealth (CCW) framework, rooted in the critical race theory (CRT), as a transformative lens for sport-based youth development (SBYD) research. Moving beyond traditional deficit-based models, which often depict youth as problematic or at-risk, CCW emphasizes recognizing and building upon the cultural strengths and assets of marginalized youth. We begin by reviewing the development of theoretical applications within the youth development, positive youth development (PYD), and SBYD literature to highlight the criticisms against conventional deficit-focused approaches. CCW offers an asset-oriented lens by offering six forms of capital—aspirational, linguistic, familial, social, navigational, and resistant—that are typically overlooked in mainstream frameworks. We illustrate how these forms of capital can reposition SBYD programs as spaces for cultivating resilience, identity, and social justice while addressing systemic inequities. By incorporating CCW with participatory research methods and critical theories, such as intersectionality and CRT, researchers can broaden the theoretical and methodological scope of SBYD. This paper concludes by suggesting practical implications for program design, organizational advocacy, and policy development, advocating for culturally responsive, community-led initiatives that prioritize the active engagement and empowerment of marginalized youth. In sum, CCW provides the “why” for critical SBYD research and practice.

This study aimed to identify subgroups of esports players based on their gaming behavior patterns across game genres and compare self-efficacy, social efficacy, loneliness and three dimensions of quality of life between these subgroups. 324 participants were recruited from prolific academic to complete an online survey. We employed latent profile analysis (LPA) to identify subgroups of esports players based on their behavioral patterns across genres. Additionally, a one-way multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA) was conducted to test the association between cluster memberships and development and well-being outcomes, controlling for age and gender as covariates. LPA analysis identified five clusters (two single-genre gamer groups, two multigenre gamer groups and one all-genre gamer group). Univariate analyses indicated the significant effect of the clusters on social efficacy, psychological health and social health. Pairwise comparisons highlighted the salience of the physical enactment-plus-sport simulation genre group in these outcomes. This study contributes to the understanding of the development and well-being benefits experienced by various esports consumers, as well as the role of specific gameplay in facilitating targeted outcomes among these consumer groups.

A growing number of sport-for-development (SFD) organizations have emerged in the nonprofit sector to leverage sport for social change, yet many organizations struggle with chronic resource deficiencies that inhibit their long-term viability and highlight a pressing need to examine the sustainability of SFD organizations through resource-based perspectives. This study analyzed secondary financial and administrative data from SFD organizations in the United States to examine changes in key resources during early organizational life stages. Latent profile analysis was utilized to classify organizations based on their level of resources, and multilevel growth modeling revealed significant changes in key resources over the first 5 years of operation, as well as significant differences based on initial resource levels and rates of change. The results provide theoretical insight into the key resources associated with organizational sustainability in the SFD field and offer practical implications for resource procurement, prioritization, and management.

Leisure is considered an effective means to relieve stress. However, limited research has explored its roles in the stress-coping processes of people with disabilities, especially those living in non-western contexts. This study explores the relationship between leisure time (LT) and leisure repertoire (LR) and perceived stress from disability (PSD) through leisure satisfaction (LS), while using perceived discrimination (PD) as a moderator. Data were collected from the 2016 and 2017 Panel Survey of Employment for the Disabled created by a Korean government agency. A total of 1,443 respondents with physical disabilities were selected. The results showed LT and LR have somewhat different associations with LS and PSD. Moreover, PD was only a moderator of the relationship between LT, LS, and PSD. The present study emphasizes the importance of quality of leisure experiences, rather than simply engaging in leisure, and the efficacy of LR as a stress coping skill.

Disasters disrupt people’s ability to be physically active. Despite the well-known health benefits of physical activity, there is limited understanding of how disasters may affect those who experience constraints to being active, such as people with disabilities. This study explored how one major disaster, the COVID-19 pandemic, affected people with disabilities’ participation in leisure-time physical activity (LTPA) and their mental health and well-being. An online survey was completed by 959 participants. Latent class analysis based on four questions asking the impact of COVID-19 on LTPA was used to identify 4 distinct classes: ‘Heavily Impacted’, ‘Adapted’, ‘Resilient’, and ‘Radically Changed’. Disability categorisation, veteran status, and gender predicted latent class membership. Results from multinomial regression revealed that the Heavily Impacted members reported significantly lower mean scores for life satisfaction, quality of life, and general health, along with poorer mean scores for loneliness than other groups. In contrast, the Resilient members reported significantly higher mean scores of quality of life and general health than other groups. Qualitative data analysis further suggests that respondents participated in myriad LTPA modes that included somewhat technology adoption. People with disabilities’ LTPA was negatively affected by the pandemic, with those most heavily impacted having poorer mental health indices.