Sport commitment in Taiwanese para-athletes

While the Sport Commitment Model (SCM) has been widely used in research, recent studies suggest increasing scholarly interest in exploring additional antecedents to this model. Bandura's Social Cognitive Theory (SCT), with its emphasis on factors influencing motivation, may provide a framework for exploring supplemental constructs to better understand the sport commitment of para-athletes with disabilities. This study examined the relationship among four potential SCT factors (i.e., sport enjoyment, perceived competence, sport friendship quality, external rewards) in predicting two dimensions of sport commitment: enthusiastic commitment and constrained commitment in Taiwanese para-athletes. A total of 149 para-athletes completed a 41-item questionnaire. Using multiple hierarchical regression analysis, all variables, except for external rewards, showed significant and positive correlations with enthusiastic commitment. Athletes who experienced higher enjoyment and had good friendship quality (R2 = 67%) displayed a stronger desire and determination to participate in sports. Sport enjoyment significantly predicted enthusiastic commitment but not constrained commitment with external rewards significantly predicting 20% of the variance of constrained commitment. The findings highlight the importance of emphasizing sport enjoyment and external rewards to enhance athletes' sport commitment. Guidance for practitioners working with this population is provided.