Exploring Research Trends in Korean Women’s Football Using Text Mining

This study aimed to explore the overall research trends and visualize the knowledge structure of academic studies related to Korean women's football through keyword network analysis based on text mining. The analysis utilized a total of 197 papers-127 academic journal articles and 70 theses-collected from major Korean academic databases, including KCI, RISS, and KISS. After preprocessing, 79 keywords with a co-occurrence frequency of three or more were selected for analysis. The results revealed four key thematic clusters: “serious leisure”, “physical fitness”, “exercise adherence” and “psychological skills”. These findings indicate that research on Korean women's football extends beyond performance enhancement, encompassing multidimensional themes such as quality of life, psychological development, and social support. However, the limited number of studies and the thematic concentration on specific areas also highlight structural limitations within the existing body of research. This study holds significance as foundational data for establishing future research directions and academic development in the field of women's football.