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Published on: May 31, 2019
The relationship between sport motivation and problematic social networking sites use among adolescents: a study
Qian Zhao1, Mingqin Geng2, Huijuan Wang3
1Department of Public Sports, Hebei North University, Zhangjiakou, Hebei, China.
Objective:
This study aimed to examine the relationships between different types of sport motivation and problematic social networking use (PSNSU) among adolescents, to test the indirect associations through positive coping and negative coping, and to further investigate the conditional associations among specific psychological components using item-level network analysis.
Methods:
Data from 1,635 adolescents were analyzed. Sport motivation, coping styles, and PSNSU were assessed using the Sport Motivation Scale, the Simplified Coping Style Questionnaire, and the Problematic Social Networking Use Scale, respectively. Correlation analysis, parallel mediation analysis, and network analysis were conducted to examine the associations among autonomous motivation, controlled motivation, amotivation, positive coping, negative coping, and PSNSU.
Results:
Autonomous motivation was significantly and negatively associated with PSNSU, whereas controlled motivation and amotivation were both significantly and positively associated with PSNSU. Parallel mediation analyses showed significant indirect associations between all three types of sport motivation and PSNSU through positive coping and negative coping. The indirect association of autonomous motivation with PSNSU was more strongly reflected in the positive coping pathway, whereas those of controlled motivation and amotivation were more strongly reflected in the negative coping pathway. Network analysis further showed that positive coping was primarily connected with PSNSU through negative cross-community associations, whereas negative coping was primarily connected with PSNSU through positive cross-community associations. Several positive coping and PSNSU items also showed relatively high statistical importance within the overall network.
Conclusion:
Different types of sport motivation showed distinct patterns of association with adolescent PSNSU, while positive coping and negative coping exhibited indirect associations in opposite directions. Taken together, the construct-level parallel mediation analysis and item-level network analysis suggest that distinguishing different types of sport motivation and coping styles may provide a more nuanced understanding of the psychological characteristics associated with PSNSU among adolescents.
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