Purpose This study investigates the effects of Coach Emotional Support on diligent training among elite athletes in the Chinese cultural context, as well as the influence mechanism following the introduction of Sport confidence. It also examines the moderating role of Behavioral regulation in exercise in the overall influence mechanism. Methods A questionnaire survey was conducted, with 1705 college student-athletes recruited as participants. Furthermore, SPSS 26.0 and AMOS 23.0 were employed to perform correlation analysis, regression analysis, and mediation effect tests on the collected data. Results (1) Coach Emotional Support, Sport confidence, and Behavioral regulation in exercise all exerted a significantly positive effect on diligent training behavior among college student-athletes; (2) Sport confidence played a partial mediating role between Coach Emotional Support and the training effort of college student-athletes. The total effect value was 1.023 ( p 0.001), and the direct effect value was 0.780 ( p 0.001). Within the mediating pathway, the predictive coefficient of Coach Emotional Support for Sport confidence was 0.512 ( p 0.001), while that for diligent training was 0.476 ( p 0.001); (3) Behavioral regulation in exercise significantly moderated the first stage of the aforementioned mediating pathway, with a moderated mediation index of 0.04 (BootSE = 0.012, LLCI = 0.02, ULCI = 0.067). Conditional indirect effect analysis revealed that as the level of Behavioral regulation in exercise increased, the mediating role of Sport confidence was gradually strengthened. Conclusion Coach Emotional Support exerts a significant positive direct effect on diligent training among college student-athletes; Sport confidence acts as a partial mediator between Coach Emotional Support and diligent training in this population; Behavioral regulation in exercise is significantly associated with the strength of the relationships between Coach Emotional Support and Sport Confidence, as well as between Sport Confidence and Train Diligently, reflecting its moderating role in the associative pathways, positively moderating the Coach Emotional Support → Sport confidence pathway and negatively moderating the Sport confidence → diligent training pathway. The present study uncovers the multiple pathways through which Coach Emotional Support influences diligent training among college student-athletes. It provides theoretical foundations and practical implications for enhancing athletes’ diligent training in physical education practice by optimizing emotional support, improving Sport confidence, and strengthening behavioral regulation.
Liu et al. (Wed,) studied this question.