Background: This research examines the nuanced challenges confronting Chinese university students within the dynamic milieu of Chinese education. The study comprehensively investigates factors encompassing educational progress, social development, cognitive focus, and Psychological Well-being (PWB), specifically emphasizing the role of sports participation. Methods: To scrutinize the moderation-mediation nexus between cultural context and social development, a distribution of 500 questionnaires was administered to Chinese university students, yielding 413 responses, corresponding to an 82.6% response rate. Methodologically, this study employed moderation and mediation analyses, incorporating statistical techniques such as a principal component matrix, factor analysis, and hierarchical regression. Findings: Prominent findings underscore the significant impact of age on educational progress, shaping the trajectory of academic advancement. Cumulative Grade Point Average (CGPA) emerges as a promising metric, establishing a link between academic performance and educational progress. Active involvement in sports and physical activities (PSPA) positively affects academic performance and study habits. Participation in sports teams and clubs (ISTC) enriches social development by nurturing interpersonal relationships, teamwork, and leadership skills. Sports activities (ESA) correlate with enhanced cognitive focus and improved psychological well-being. Significantly, the findings unveil a nuanced association between Perceived Social Development Through Sports (PSDTS) and educational progress. Conclusions: Cultural Context (CC) moderates PSDTS, Sport-induced Cognitive Focus (SICF), and PWB, influencing educational progress. This study emphasizes the need for enhanced support systems—academic guidance, awareness, sports programs, and cultural competence training—to advance student well-being and academic achievement in China, fostering an empowering educational environment for societal progress.

Although the right to participate in sports is recognized in international conventions, accessibility to sports facilities has been cited as barriers to participation. Managers of sports facilities must know the standards that refer to the rules and accessibility to meet the needs of persons with disabilities to participate in sports and to attend sporting events. Therefore, this study aimed to evaluate the accessibility of sports facilities for training and competition in Indonesia and Malaysia. This study used a qualitative method through focus group discussions. Fifteen focus group discussions were conducted with 90 athletes from eight sports (boccia, goalball, basketball, badminton, ping-pong, swimming, powerlifting and blind football) who trained and competed in inclusive sports facilities. There were five major themes that we identified: access to training facilities, access inside training facilities, access during matches and athletes’ expectations of training and competition facilities.

This study examined the association between motivational processes, psychological distress (depression, anxiety, and stress), and burnout among winter sports athletes within the Hierarchical Model of Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation (HMIEM). A total of 685 winter sport athletes participated in this study (377 males, 308 females, age range 18–25 years), from three sport universities across nine winter sports. They completed five psychometric inventories related to motivational factors and mental disorders. Overall, a task-oriented climate showed a positive association with basic psychological needs, eliciting a positive pathway to autonomous and controlled motivation. In contrast, an ego-oriented climate showed a negative association with basic psychological needs, eliciting a negative pathway to amotivation. Autonomous and controlled motivation were negatively associated with symptoms of psychological distress and burnout, while amotivation was positively associated with symptoms of psychological distress and burnout. These findings highlight the complex relationships between various motivational factors and mental health disorders among winter sport athletes, and support the essential requirement for adding mental health factors to the outcomes of the HMIEM sequence.

The sustainable development of sports facilities and their integration with the ecological environment are crucial in addressing global environmental challenges. This study examines the coupling coordination between sports facilities and the ecological environment in nine prefecture-level cities in Fujian Province, China, from 2013 to 2020, within the framework of China’s “Dual Carbon” strategy. Using a multidisciplinary approach that integrates economics, sociology, and geography, the study employs the entropy method and coupling coordination models to analyze the temporal evolution and spatial distribution of the coupling coordination between sports facilities and the ecological environment. The findings reveal that the overall trend of coupling coordination is positive, with the degree of coordination improving over time from severe imbalance in 2013 to high-quality coordination by 2020. Economic factors, such as per capita GDP, positively influence the coupling coordination, while factors like population density and regional GDP have a negative impact. Coastal cities, such as Xiamen and Zhangzhou, demonstrate stronger regional correlations and play a critical role in improving the overall coupling level of the province. This research provides several recommendations for promoting orderly and optimal development, considering the distinct characteristics of sports facilities and the ecological environment.

Sports facilities are a crucial physical safeguard and means of sustaining sporting activities. The steady and healthy development of sports facilities can promote the sustainable development of the social economy. In order to explore the coordination status and influencing factors between sports facilities construction and the social economy, this paper built a coupling coordination evaluation index system and dynamic factor index system for the sports facilities construction and social economy development by using the entropy method, coupling coordination model and random effect model. This paper assessed the comprehensive level, coupling coordination relationship, and influencing factors of the sports facilities and social economy development of nine cities in the Fujian Province across China from 2016 to 2020. The results show the overall level of sports facilities construction in Fujian is better than the social economy development, and the two systems are interacting with each other. The level of coupling and coordination gradually changes from good coordination to quality sustainable coordination. The coupling coordinated relationship between the two systems is developing in a positive way. In addition, industrial development, the level of urban development, and environmental development as influencing factors have a clear positive effect on the degree of coupling coordination. This study provides several recommendations for cities to achieve sustainable coordinated development. This paper also may provide a direction and path for future research.

This study investigates the complex relationships between sports media use (SMU), sports participation behavior (SPB), and sports commitment. With the increasing consumption of sports media, it is essential to understand both the quantitative and qualitative dimensions of how media engagement correlates with participation and long-term commitment to sports. The study aims to investigate the relationship between SMU and SPB, as well as the mediating role of SPB in sports commitment, using a mixed-methods approach. Additionally, it explores individuals’ lived experiences to provide deeper insights into how media shapes engagement and commitment. A mixed-methods design was employed, integrating quantitative and qualitative data. A survey of 484 participants from diverse demographic backgrounds was conducted, and structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to analyze the relationships among variables. To complement these findings, semi-structured interviews were conducted with a subset of participants to explore their narratives surrounding media roles, sports behavior, and commitment. Thematic analysis was applied to interpret qualitative data. Quantitative findings revealed significant positive relationships between SMU and SPB and between SMU and sports commitment. SPB was found to partially mediate the relationship between SMU and sports commitment. The qualitative findings supported these results, highlighting key themes such as motivation, role modeling, and identity formation through media exposure. Participants described how sports media inspired them to engage in sports and reinforced their long-term commitment. This study demonstrates that SMU plays a significant role in fostering sports participation and commitment, with SPB as a key mediator. The integration of qualitative insights strengthens these findings by illustrating the personal experiences and psychological mechanisms that drive engagement. These results underscore the potential of sports media for promoting sustained participation and commitment, offering practical implications for policymakers, educators, and sports organizations aiming to leverage media for greater sports engagement. Future research should explore cultural differences and the role of specific media content types to refine further our understanding of the media’s correlation with sports behavior.