The Effect of Sports Commitment on Regular Studying: The Mediating Role of Athlete Mental Health Continuity

This research examines the effect of sports commitment levels on regular study behaviors and the mediating role of athlete mental health continuity in this effect. The research was conducted with the participation of 394 volunteer athletes and the Hypotheses were tested through Model 4 of Hayes (2022). Analyses for structural equation modeling were performed using IBM SPSS Statistics and its extensions AMOS and PROCESS software, and the analyses were tested using the Bootstrap technique. The results show that sports commitment has a significant effect on mental health continuity (a1 = 0.3918, p < 0.01) and that mental health continuity has a positive effect on regular studying (b1 = 0.0807, p < 0.01). In addition, the direct effect of sports commitment is also significant (c’ = 0.0830, p < 0.01), but this effect is more strongly mediated through the mental health continuity. The combined effects were also significant (sports commitment: b = 0.0807, p = 0.0002; mental health continuity: b = 0.0830, p = 0.0001). In addition, the indirect effect between sports commitment and regular studying (b = 0.0325; SE = 0.0106; BootCI = [0.0142 – 0.0559], p < 0.01) revealed the mediating role of mental health continuity. The results highlight the strong interaction between sports commitment, mental health continuity, and regular study. In this context, developing programs that support the mental health of student athletes in universities may be effective in increasing their academic success.