The Association Between Social Support and College Athletes’ Psychological Well-Being: The Multiple Mediating Roles of Emotion Regulation and Emotional Intelligence
Guihua Xu, Xirui Yang, Le Wang, Qiyong ZhangBackground
College athletes experience substantial pressures stemming from academics, training, and competition, which are associated with escalating psychological well-being (PW) challenges. Social support is widely acknowledged as a pivotal factor related to PW, with emotion regulation and emotional intelligence (EI) potentially serving as critical mediators in this association. Accordingly, the present research investigates the mediating roles of emotion regulation strategies, particularly cognitive reappraisal (CR), and EI in the link between social support and college athletes’ PW.
Methods
We employed a cross-sectional design involving 1,918 college athletes, using validated scales to assess social support, CR, EI, and PW. Structural equation modeling (SEM) analyzed the direct and indirect associations between social support on PW, mediated by CR and EI.
Results
The findings indicate that social support has a significant direct association with the PW of college athletes (β = 0.379, p < 0.001). Moreover, perceived social support (PSS) shows a significant model-implied indirect association with PW through EI (β = 0.062, p = 0.001) and through the serial indirect pathway involving CR and EI (β = 0.090, p = 0.002). The specific indirect association via CR alone was not statistically significant (β = 0.061, p = 0.119).
Conclusion
This study underscores the mediating functions of CR and EI in connecting social support with PW. The findings provide a conceptual basis for developing PW programs targeting college athletes, underscoring the importance of strengthening social support, optimizing emotion regulation strategies, and enhancing EI to support overall well-being.