Running nostalgia, curiosity, recreational specialization, and well-being: a cross-cultural study of young adult runners in South Korea and China

Drawing on Fredrickson’s broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions, this study examined how sport-specific nostalgia for past running experiences relates to curiosity, recreational specialization (i.e., the accumulation of running-related skills, knowledge, and commitment), and well-being, and tested whether these associations differ between young adult runners in South Korea and China. Using a cross-sectional survey design, data were collected from 635 regular recreational runners from South Korea and 326 from China. The proposed model was tested using confirmatory factor analysis, structural equation modelling, and multigroup structural equation modelling after measurement invariance testing. Results indicated that nostalgia was positively associated with curiosity, specialization, and well-being. Specialization was positively associated with well-being, and curiosity was positively related to both specialization and well-being. Cross-national comparisons showed that the paths from nostalgia to curiosity, curiosity to specialization, and nostalgia to well-being were significantly stronger in China than in South Korea, whereas the remaining paths did not differ significantly across groups. Overall, the findings provide cross-sectional evidence consistent with broaden-and-build theory, suggesting that running-related nostalgia is linked to exploratory motivation, practice-based involvement, and well-being in recreational running. The results highlight the potential of nostalgia to inform culturally sensitive strategies for supporting recreational running engagement and well-being.