How psychological resilience shapes adolescents' sports participation: the mediating effect of exercise motivation

This study explores the impact mechanism of adolescent psychological resilience on sports participation and focuses on the mediating role of sports motivation. Psychological resilience, the ability to adapt to stress and challenges, plays a crucial role in the sustainability and stability of adolescent sports participation. Meanwhile, sports motivation, as the core driving force behind sports behavior, may serve as a key bridge between psychological resilience and sports participation. However, existing research on this mechanism remains limited, especially regarding its applicability across different gender groups.Using a stratified random sampling method, this study collected data from 2,588 adolescents in grades 7 to 12 across 15 provinces in China. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was employed to analyze the mediation effect and conduct gender-based structural invariance tests. The results indicate that psychological resilience significantly predicts sports participation, with sports motivation playing a partial mediating role, accounting for 60.26% of the total effect (p < 0.001). Additionally, multi-group SEM analysis confirmed the robustness of this model across genders, suggesting that the role of psychological resilience and sports motivation in promoting sports participation is universal.The findings highlight the importance of psychological resilience and sports motivation in adolescent sports participation, providing empirical support for sports education and health promotion. This study not only enriches the intersection of sports psychology and education but also offers theoretical insights for optimizing school sports curricula and developing sports intervention strategies to foster long-term sports participation habits among adolescents.