Identity, Motivation, and Continuance Intention in Self-Identified Leisure Esports Participation

This cross-sectional study examined structural associations among esports identity, three dimensions of esports participation motivation, and continuance intention in 250 South Korean adults who self-identified as leisure esports participants. Confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling were conducted. Esports identity was positively associated with intrinsic motivation for knowing and achieving, extrinsic regulation, and PMSES identification. Intrinsic motivation was positively associated with continuance intention, whereas extrinsic regulation was nonsignificant. PMSES identification had a significant negative coefficient in the full model despite a positive bivariate correlation with continuance intention. The coefficient is not interpreted as evidence of a negative substantive relationship. The direct path from esports identity to continuance intention was nonsignificant. Esports identity and extrinsic regulation were modeled as separate constructs, and the five-factor model fit better than an alternative model combining them. The specified path from esports identity to extrinsic regulation was statistically significant (β = 0.958, p < 0.001). Their correlation (r = 0.800) and HTMT value (0.900) warrant care when interpreting unique conditional coefficients.