Scientific Reports (Feb 2025)
A configurational path study of adolescents’ intention to participate in ice and snow sports based on the TPB and NAM frameworks
Abstract
Abstract The development of ice and snow sports is a crucial aspect of building China into a leading sports nation. Enhancing adolescents’ willingness to participate in ice and snow sports reflects the essence of sustainable and high-quality development in this field. Using data from 23 provinces and municipalities in China in 2023, this study adopts an integrated theoretical framework combining the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) and the Norm Activation Model (NAM). Employing fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA), the study identifies key influencing factors and explores the configuration paths affecting adolescents’ willingness to participate in ice and snow sports. The findings are as follows: (1) Although public participation in ice and snow sports among adolescents is being actively promoted in China, there remains a lack of comprehensive understanding of their participation intentions and demands. (2) Subjective norms and personal norms, as sufficient conditions, show strong explanatory power in shaping adolescents’ willingness to participate in ice and snow sports. This highlights the importance of exploring multiple condition-variable configurations to gain a more comprehensive and in-depth understanding of adolescents’ participation intentions. (3) Four primary paths to promoting adolescents’ willingness to participate in ice and snow sports were identified: the comprehensive driver path (C1), the emotional and normative resonance path (C2), the integrated participation path (C3), and the knowledge-behavior co-driven paths (C4 and C5). The study recommends a collaborative approach between government and schools to integrate ice and snow sports into adolescents’ quality education system, leveraging digital technologies to enrich and enhance their ice and snow sports experience. Additionally, fostering an ice and snow culture to strengthen adolescents’ emotional identity and cultural value perception of these sports is essential to attract more youth participation. By focusing on the integrated TPB-NAM theoretical framework and incorporating risk perception and prior knowledge for evaluating participation willingness, this study effectively overcomes the limitations of single-method approaches. This expansion provides new perspectives and proposes novel paths, such as emotional and normative resonance and knowledge-behavior co-driving, for understanding and promoting ice and snow sports. These findings offer targeted market insights and intervention strategies for policymakers and practitioners. The fsQCA method identifies key drivers and contextual combinations, assisting policymakers, educators, and learners in promoting participation. Overall, this study enriches theoretical understanding and proposes comprehensive and scenario-adaptive dynamic paths to foster high-quality development in ice and snow sports while providing practical guidance for policymakers and educators.
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