Relationship between passion and psychological well-being of taekwondo athletes: testing the mediating effects of social behavior

BACKGROUND: The study uses PROCESS Macro statistical model and examines the causal relationship of passion, social behavior, and psychological well-being of taekwondo athletes. METHODS: Passion, social behavior, and psychological well-being were measured among 261 registered athletes at Korea Taekwondo Association in 2021 in South Korea. The collected data was analyzed using SPSS 24.0 (SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL, USA), PROCESS Macro (Calgary, AB, Canada), Amos 24.0 (IBM Corp, Armonk, NY, USA). RESULTS: Harmonious passion had a significant indirect effect through prosocial behavior on the feelings of self-realization, confidence, and flow and through antisocial behavior on the feeling of flow. Obsessive passion had a significant indirect effect through prosocial behavior on the feelings of self-realization, confidence, and flow and through antisocial behavior on feeling of flow, hedonic enjoyment. CONCLUSIONS: The results of the study suggest that the level of perceiving psychological well-being differs based on the level of taekwondo athletes' dualistic passion. social behavior, the study is expected to serve as a model study that enables applying psychological well-being.