Examining sport commitment formation model focused on the relationships between receiving -providing social supports and athletic identity

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to demonstrate the relationships between social supports with teammates and athletic identity, and the relevance in athletic identity and sport commitment. In addition, this study examined the process leading to actual sport behavior. Participants were 520 collegiate student athletes (male: 362, female: 158). The result of the Structural Equation Modeling (SEM), providing social supports for teammates determine their athletic identity, and athletic identity influences sport commitment. In addition, the result of examining the relationships of the sport commitment and actual sport behavior indicted the significant causal relationship. Thus, the result of this study demonstrated that providing supports for teammate was an important factor for improving sport participation (time×frequency×intension).