The impact of social support on the quality of sports participation among individuals with disabilities: the chain mediating effects of psychological capital and self-esteem

Social support not only directly enhances the quality of sports participation among individuals with disabilities but also facilitates a transformation from external empowerment to internal drive through the chain psychological mechanism of "Psychological Capital → Self-Esteem." Theoretically, this study verifies the hierarchical progressive effect of positive psychological resources within the "Environment-Cognition-Behavior" pathway, deepening the psychological dynamic model of sports participation for individuals with disabilities. Practically, it suggests that improving participation quality requires the simultaneous construction of a multi-level social support network and the development of targeted integrated intervention programs focusing on psychological capital and self-esteem, to achieve a synergistic leap from participation "quantity" to experiential "quality."