ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Sport Psychology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1623057
This article is part of the Research TopicMotivations For Physical Activity - Volume IVView all 12 articles
Effects of Biophilic Design-based Sports Facilities on Exercise Continuance Continuation Intention: Mediating Effects of Exercise Immersion and Moderating Effect of Environmental Awareness
Provisionally accepted
- 1Dong-A University, Busan, Republic of Korea
- 2Keimyung University, Daegu, Republic of Korea
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The purpose of this study is to empirically analyze the effects of components of sports facilities with biophilic design on exercise immersion and exercise continuation intention of exercise participants, and to verify the mediating effect of exercise immersion and the moderating effect of environmental awareness in this relationship. Specifically, the study investigates the mediating role of exercise immersion and the moderating role of environmental awareness in these relationships. The purpose of this study is to empirically analyze how biophilic design elements in sports facilities influence exercise immersion and the intention to continue exercising. Specifically, the study explores the psychological mechanisms underlying this relationship by testing the mediating effect of exercise immersion and the moderating effect of environmental awareness. A structured survey was administered to 200 physical education majors in Busan and Daegu, South Korea. Correlation analysis, regression analysis, and both mediating and moderating effect analysis were performed to confirm the relationships among the key variables. The findings indicate that biophilic design components positively affect both cognitive and behavioral immersion, and that exercise immersion significantly predicts the intention to continue exercising. Moreover, the psychological/physical effects and indirect natural elements partially mediated the relationship between biophilic design and exercise continuation intention through exercise immersion. Specifically, the mediation analysis revealed that, for psychological/physical effects, the indirect pathway via cognitive immersion accounted for 26.9% of the total effect and via behavioral immersion for 51.1%. For indirect natural elements, the proportions were 20.8% (cognitive immersion) and 25.9% (behavioral immersion). These results indicate substantial, though not exclusive, mediation effects. On the other hand, environmental awareness did not exhibit a statistically significant moderating effect. These findings highlight the psychological mechanisms through which spatial design in sports facilities fosters deeper engagement and sustained participation. The study suggests that strategically incorporating biophilic design elements may enhance user experience and promote long-term exercise participation. This research contributes both theoretically and practically to the development of sustainable sports facilities through an integrative perspective combining sports psychology and environmental design.
Keywords: Biophilic design features of sports facilities, Exercise immersion, environmental awareness, Exercise continuation intention, Mediation analysis
Received: 05 May 2025; Accepted: 15 Aug 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Lee and Park. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Sung Jun Park, Keimyung University, Daegu, Republic of Korea
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