Profiles of Sport Commitment and Mental Health among Non Student-Athletes at Us Universities

A commitment is the "pledging or binding of an individual to behavioral acts" (Kiesler & Sakumura, 1966, p.349). Commitment has been examined across many academic areas such as Psychology (Michael, 2021), Sociology (Kemper, 2012), and Business (Carballo-Penela et al., 2020). For example, in Psychology, commitment refers to a state that predicts one's behavior and maintains relationships with other people (Michael, 2021). In Sociology, commitment is defined as a contribution to maintaining an ongoing connection with all the relevant social groups from one's personal history (Kemper, 2012). Also, researchers in the business area explained the commitment to sustainability as an element that has a favorable impact on job seekers' intentions to seek employment opportunities within the organization (Carballo-Penela et al., 2020). Notably, Commitment has been regarded as an essential element of motivating, persisting, and achieving objectives in sports (Hall, 1993), and has also been studied frequently in the Sport Psychology and Management field (Scanlan et al., 1993, p.1). A commitment is known to have different types of outcomes. Specifically, many researchers conducted studies on how commitment can influence one's mental health by applying Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT). ACT is "a type of behavior therapy that uses processes such as acceptance, mindfulness, and commitment behaviors to create some flexible psychological processes" (Karimi, & Aghaei, 2018, p.2). Applying the ACT in the educational and psychological contexts reduced the psychological problems (e.g., anxiety, depression, and stress) of students (Karimi, & Aghaei, 2018). Thus, exercisers who used the ACT during aerobics had higher levels of subjective well-being and lower psychological distress (Xu et al., 2021). Commitment influenced an individual's mental health, yet, there have been no studies on how different types and levels of Sport Commitment may be associated with one's mental health among college students. Sport Commitment is one's psychological state of participating in sports due to the desire or perception of obligation or both (Scanlan et al., 1993). The original Sport Commitment Model (SCM) is a representative framework of Sport Commitment for explaining the persistent involvement in sports and is designed for youth sports. (Scanlan et al., 1993). To apply this model to adult populations, Scanlan et al. (2016) updated the original SCM and described it as a theoretical framework to "examine commitment and explain why athletes involve in their sport continuously" (p. 234), however, several studies applied the model to non-athletes such as recreational players as well (Bum, 2018; Casper & Andrew, 2008; Gabriele et al., 2011; Kang et al., 2020; Ko & Kim, 2021; Wilson et al., 2004). Even though many studies have focused on the determinant of Sport Commitment, only little research has concentrated on the outcomes of Sport Commitment including mental health outcomes and, further, no studies have investigated the potential association between different profiles of Sport Commitment and mental health outcomes among college students who are not student-athletes. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between two different profiles of Sport Commitment (i.e., Enthusiastic Commitment, Constrained Commitment) and levels of various mental health outcomes (i.e., stress, anxiety, depression, happiness, and psychological well-being) among college students who are not student-athletes in the US. To fulfill the objective of the present study, this research was designed as cross-sectional research. I recruited 300 participants via Prolific, and the 83 items survey was distributed using Qualtrics. As measurements, I adopted the SCQ-2 (Scanlan et al., 2016), DASS-21 (Lovibond & Lovibond, 1995), OHQ (Hills & Argyle, 2002), PERMA Profiler (Butler & Kern, 2016), BRCS (Sinclair & Wallston, 2004) to assess Enthusiastic Commitment, Constrained Commitment, stress, anxiety, depression, happiness, psychological well-being, and resilient coping. After collecting the data, I conducted the descriptive analysis and Canonical correlation analysis to explore the association between two profiles of Sport Commitment and one's stress, anxiety, depression, happiness, and psychological well-being. As a result, it showed that participants who were enthusiastically committed to sports had high levels of happiness and psychological well-being, and lower levels of stress, anxiety, and depression. In contrast, participants who had a higher level of Constrained Commitment tended to have higher degrees of stress, anxiety, and depression, and lower happiness and psychological well-being. The present study holds significance both in terms of theoretical and practical implications. It contributes to the theoretical expansion of the SCM by examining the mental health outcomes of two profiles of Sport Commitment among college students who are not student-athletes. Additionally, the results highlight the crucial roles of the university in maximizing the level of Enthusiastic Commitment that lead to enhancing mental health among college students.

Grantor dc:publisher

Florida State University

Year dc:date

2023

Contributors dc:contributor

• Jeong, Yeeun (author)
• Kim, Amy C. H. (Amy Chan Hyung) (professor directing thesis)
• Du, James (committee member)
• Xue, Hanhan (committee member)
• Florida State University (degree granting institution)
• College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences (degree granting college)
• Department of Sport Management (degree granting department)

• Sports administration

Language dc:language

English

Identifier

fsu:927934
iid: Jeong_fsu_0071N_18188

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:diginole.lib.fsu.edu:fsu_927934