ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Sport Psychology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1662714
This article is part of the Research TopicPhysical Education, Health and Education Innovation-Vol IIIView all 22 articles
The Influence of Parental Expectations on Adolescents' Participation in Sports: A Chain Mediation Model of Basic Psychological Needs and Exercise Motivation
Provisionally accepted
- Jeonbuk National University, Jeonju, Republic of Korea
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Reports from the World Health Organization (WHO) and UNICEF indicate that insufficient physical activity among adolescents is a prevalent global issue. Parental expectations, as a socio-environmental factor, are hypothesized to influence adolescent physical activity engagement; however, the underlying mechanisms remain to be further elucidated. This study aimed to examine the relationships between parental expectations, basic psychological needs, exercise motivation, and adolescent sports participation, with the goal of providing both a theoretical foundation and practical guidance for enhancing adolescent physical activity in China. A survey was administered to 1,286 school-going adolescents across Eastern, Central, and Western China using the Parental Expectations Scale, Basic Psychological Needs Scale, Exercise Motivation Scale, and Physical Activity Rating Scale. Parental expectations were found to significantly and positively predict adolescent physical activity. Basic psychological needs and exercise motivation each partially mediated the relationship between parental expectations and Parental expectations were found to significantly and positively predict adolescent physical activity. Additionally, a significant serial mediation effect involving both basic psychological needs and exercise motivation was identified. Parental expectations positively influence adolescent Parental expectations were found to significantly and positively predict adolescent physical activity; within the family context, positive expectations can be converted into extrinsic motivation for engagement. The serial mediation effect involving basic psychological needs and exercise motivation suggests that parental expectations promote adolescent Parental expectations were found to significantly and positively predict adolescent physical activity by fulfilling their basic psychological needs, thus enhancing their exercise motivation.
Keywords: adolescents, Parental expectations, Basic psychological needs, SDT, EVT, IntermediateInspection
Received: 09 Jul 2025; Accepted: 22 Sep 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Lumin, Li, Long, Hwang and Ahn. 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: Jae Woong Ahn, jae6584651@hanmail.net
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