ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Sport Psychology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1673966
This article is part of the Research TopicEmotional Intelligence in Youth Sports: Enhancing Performance, Coaching, and Well-BeingView all articles
Analysis of factors influencing career preparation behaviors of Korean student athletes according to regional context
Provisionally accepted
- Korea National University of Education, Gangnae-myeon, Republic of Korea
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This study analyzed the effects of social support and school adjustment on career preparation behaviors among Korean high school soccer players and empirically examined the moderating effect of region (metropolitan/non-metropolitan) on the relationship between these variables. To achieve this, a survey was conducted on 223 male high school football players from six high schools located in the Seoul metropolitan area and non-metropolitan areas. The relationships among school life adjustment, social support, and career preparation behaviors were analyzed using SPSS 27 and Process Macro 4.0 (Model 15). The results showed that both social support and school adjustment had a significant positive influence on career preparation behaviors, and the relationship between these variables was moderated by region. Specifically, social support directly influenced career preparation behaviors in the Seoul National Capital Area, but in the non-Seoul National Capital Area, it exerted an indirect influence through school adjustment. On the other hand, the influence of school life adjustment was relatively stronger in non-metropolitan areas. These results suggest that regional educational disparities structurally influence the career formation process of student athletes and emphasize the need for region-specific career support strategies.
Keywords: Sstudent athletes, Career preparation behavior, social support, School life adjustment, Regional disparities, Moderated mediating effect
Received: 27 Jul 2025; Accepted: 28 Aug 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Ha. 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: Seong Jun Ha, Korea National University of Education, Gangnae-myeon, Republic of Korea
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