ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Sport Psychology
This article is part of the Research TopicEmotional Intelligence in Youth Sports: Enhancing Performance, Coaching, and Well-BeingView all 6 articles
More Than a Game: The Impact of Decent Work on Work Engagement among Athletes through the Serial Mediation of Visions about Future and Sport Anxiety
Provisionally accepted
- Karamanoğlu Mehmetbey University, Karaman, Türkiye
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Objective: This current study examined the serial mediating role of visions about future (hope, optimism, pessimism) and sport anxiety in the relationship between decent work and work engagement among professional athletes. Methods: The participants were 296 professional athletes (30.1% female, 69.9% male) aged between 18 and 48, actively competing in football, volleyball, or basketball leagues in Türkiye. Participants completed the Decent Work Scale, Visions About Future Scale, Sport Anxiety Scale, and Utrecht Work Engagement Scale. Structural equation modeling and bootstrapping methods were used for data analysis. Results: The results revealed that decent work positively predicted hope, optimism, and work engagement, and negatively predicted pessimism. Optimism negatively predicted sport anxiety, while pessimism positively predicted it. Sport anxiety had a significant negative effect on work engagement. Furthermore, optimism, pessimism, and sport anxiety significantly mediated the relationship between decent work and work engagement in a serial manner. Hope did not significantly mediate this relationship. Conclusion: These findings highlight the critical role of professional athletes' future-oriented cognitions and anxiety levels in translating perceptions of decent work into higher engagement in sport. The study provides valuable insights for psychosocial interventions and organizational policies to enhance athletes' sustainable careers.
Keywords: Decent work, work engagement, visions about future, hope, optimism, pessimism, Sport anxiety
Received: 10 Sep 2025; Accepted: 24 Oct 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Horozoğlu and KORKMAZ. 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: Ozan KORKMAZ, pd.ozankorkmaz@gmail.com
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