Unrestricted challenging ability turn out to high sports performance through presenteeism: The moderating role of physical activity

Athletes in China feel more social pressure to compete while injured and are more likely to avoid rest and trivialize pain. The present study contributes a novel lens on this problem by integrating presenteeism into a highly competitive setting. Physical activities can be adopted to establish more target-specific health preventive strategies for athletes. Drawing on the broaden-and-build theory, the current study proposes challenge stressors as a precursor to sports performance. As an intervening variable, presenteeism represents the practice of playing while in pain. Elite athletes frequently use medications and hide their injuries from teammates to play while injured, show commitment to the game, and take this stress as a challenge. Furthermore, the study proposes that physical activity moderates the relationship between challenge stressors and presenteeism. A two-wave questionnaire was conducted with 430 valid responses from basketball players. Our findings show that challenge stressors were positively linked to sports performance and presenteeism. In addition, the study found that presenteeism significantly mediated the relationship between challenge stressors and sports performance. Moreover, the study confirms that high levels of physical activity strengthen the direct effect of challenge stressors on presenteeism and the mediating effect of challenge stressors on sports performance. The findings exhibit positive and significant associations among all variables. Practical implications and future directions are discussed.