Background This study examined the relationships between Chinese university track-and-field coaches’ communication ability, student-athletes’ sport passion, and ego-resilience. It further tested whether sport passion mediates the association between coaches’ communication ability and athletes’ ego-resilience. Methods A questionnaire survey was applied to Chinese university track-and-field student-athletes, yielding 412 valid responses. Descriptive statistics were computed, and the psychometric properties of the measures were evaluated using exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, and reliability analysis. Pearson correlation analysis was conducted to examine bivariate associations. Subsequently, structural equation modeling was performed to test the hypothesized direct and indirect (mediated) pathways with model fit evaluated using commonly accepted fit indices. Results The structural model demonstrated acceptable fit (χ 2 /df = 2.261, RMR = 0.020, RMSEA = 0.055, CFI = 0.978, TLI = 0.967). Coaches’ communication ability had significant positive effects on sport passion ( B = 0.668, p 0.001) and ego-resilience ( B = 0.294, p 0.001), and sport passion positively predicted ego-resilience ( B = 0.552, p 0.001). Sport passion significantly mediated the association between coaches’ communication ability and ego-resilience. Conclusion Findings highlight the importance of coaches’ communication ability in fostering student-athletes’ adaptive psychological resources. Interventions aimed at improving coaches’ communication may help strengthen athletes’ sport passion and in turn support the development of ego-resilience.
Chen et al. (Wed,) studied this question.