ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Sport Psychology
This article is part of the Research TopicEfficacy, Neuromechanisms, and Human-AI Interface Integration: Neural-Adaptation Training Paradigms for Sports and RehabilitationView all 9 articles
How does digital social media facilitate sports rehabilitation? Evidence from psychological recovery pathways and platform stickiness
Provisionally accepted
- 1Namseoul University, Cheonan, Republic of Korea
- 2Korea National Sport University, Songpa-gu, Republic of Korea
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Objective: This study aims to explore how DSM influences the PRS of sports injury rehabilitation patients through a chain mediation mechanism, and how it further affects PS. In addition, it examines the moderating role of individuals' DSDT within this pathway. Methods: Questionnaire data were collected from 596 sports injury rehabilitation patients in China using a random sampling method. The measurement tools covered 10 psychological variables. A structural equation model was constructed using AMOS 26.0 to perform chain mediation analysis. Path coefficients were estimated using the Bootstrap method, and the moderating effect was tested with the PROCESS macro in SPSS. Results: The study found that DSM significantly enhances the PRS of individuals through two pathways: "PIC →CSC →ERS" and "SIF →PCSM →PRC." The PRS further positively predicts PS. In addition, DSDT plays a significant positive moderating role between DSM use and PRS. Conclusion: DSM plays a positive role in promoting the PRS of rehabilitation patients. It not only provides informational and social support but also activates cognitive and emotional mechanisms, ultimately enhancing PS. The study confirms the feasibility of DSM as an intervention tool in digital rehabilitation and highlights the importance of individual behavioral characteristics.
Keywords: digital self-disclosure tendency, Digital social media, platform stickiness, psychological recovery state, Sports injury rehabilitation patients
Received: 07 Sep 2025; Accepted: 27 Jan 2026.
Copyright: © 2026 Zhaoyu, Qingyun and Soohyun. 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:
Liu Zhaoyu
Kim Soohyun
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