SYSTEMATIC REVIEW article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Sport Psychology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1698568
This article is part of the Research TopicEmotional Intelligence in Youth Sports: Enhancing Performance, Coaching, and Well-BeingView all 5 articles
A Meta-Analysis on the Relationship Between RPE and Well-being in Adolescent Athletes: The Critical Moderating Role of Well-being Dimensions
Provisionally accepted
- 1WUSHU COLLEGE, Henan University, Kaifeng, China
- 2Henan University, Kaifeng, China
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The relationship between Rating of Perceived Exertion (RPE) and well-being in adolescent athletes is controversial, complicating effective athlete monitoring. This meta-analysis aimed to clarify this relationship and investigate the critical moderating role of well-being dimensions. Following PRISMA guidelines, we systematically searched Web of Science and PubMed, including 24 studies (57 effect sizes). An initial analysis of the overall relationship revealed extremely high heterogeneity (I2= 85.6%), indicating that pooling all well-being dimensions is inappropriate. Subgroup analysis was decisive, identifying the nature of the well-being indicator as the key moderator. RPE was strongly positively correlated with consumptive indicators (e.g., fatigue, DOMS; r = 0.51) but moderately negatively correlated with restorative indicators (e.g., sleep quality; r = −0.45), with the difference between these groups being highly significant (p<0.0001). Sport type, age, and gender were not significant moderators. Although publication bias was detected (p = 0.014), sensitivity analyses confirmed the robustness of the crucial subgroup findings. The generalizability of these results may be limited as the included samples were predominantly elite, male adolescent athletes. In conclusion, the RPE-well-being relationship is profound but context-dependent, driven by the nature of the well-being metric (consumptive vs. restorative). This provides a scientific basis for more precise athlete monitoring.
Keywords: Adolescent athletes, Rating of perceived exertion (RPE), Well-being, Meta-analysis, athlete monitoring
Received: 03 Sep 2025; Accepted: 20 Oct 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 GU, LIU and LONG. 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: CHEN LONG, cheng@henu.edu.cn
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