Earth and Environmental Sciences

A qualitative thematic analysis was conducted with 25 students from a Malaysian institution to gain a deeper understanding of their motivation for using ChatGPT in English language learning. The study employed Self-Determination Theory (SDT) and the results demonstrated that ChatGPT has the potential to contribute positively to aspects related to English language competence, social connections, and independent learning processes. Therefore, ChatGPT emerges as a helpful resource for enhancing grammar, writing, and conversational tasks, allowing educators to prioritize higher order thinking abilities and intricate areas of language training. The results suggest that ChatGPT supports learners' autonomy, relatedness, and competence, which are key components of Self-Determination Theory (SDT). Nevertheless, the study also highlighted certain obstacles, such as ChatGPT's tendency to produce erroneous or nonsensical information and its restricted capacity to ensure the accuracy of content in language learning situations. These findings emphasize the need for focused efforts to tackle these difficulties. Educators must acknowledge the limitations of the tool and complement ChatGPT interactions with human interactions to provide a comprehensive and efficient language learning experience.

Introduction Among the 3.2 million Latinos in the United States with serious mental illness (SMI) in 2024, less than 15.5% received any treatment or medication. Research on mental health treatment engagement among Latinos has largely conceptualized engagement broadly, overlooking nuances in the engagement process, disorder severity, and community heterogeneity. Most studies on treatment engagement among Latinos with SMI have explored macro-level factors without a guiding framework or theory. Thus, the aim of the current study was to identify barriers to and facilitators of treatment engagement among Latinos with SMI using the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research (CFIR). Methods Sixteen Latino adults with SMI ( n = 8 in treatment; n = 8 not in treatment) participated in qualitative semi-structured interviews in their preferred language via Zoom. The interview questions were informed by the CFIR and the available literature on Latinos with serious mental illness. The interview questions were reviewed and revised through a collaborative validation process with an all-Latino community advisory team. Results Thematic analysis of the data identified a range of barriers to and facilitators of engagement in mental health treatment. Inner setting domain barriers included incongruence between treatment and Latino culture, and limited availability of bilingual and bicultural providers. Individual characteristic domain barriers included negative experience with mental health providers, lack of trust in providers and systems of care, and mental health stigma. Inner setting domain facilitators included mental health psychoeducation and providers who listen and are compassionate. Individual characteristics domain facilitators included preferences for behavior-based, context-based, and faith-based care. Conclusion These findings contribute to existing literature by shedding light on non-social determinants of health (SDOH)-related barriers to and facilitators of treatment engagement for Latinos with SMI.

Introduction Mental health help-seeking intentions are associated with individual, social, and contextual factors, yet cross-national research comparing Western and East Asian populations remains limited, and few studies have evaluated whether cultural variables contribute explanatory value beyond established predictors. Methods A quantitative cross-sectional survey was administered to 304 university students (154 Italian, 150 South Korean) aged 19–35. A series of block-wise hierarchical regressions examined associations between demographic characteristics, social support, self-stigma, prior service use, and cultural variables with help-seeking intentions in two independently recruited national samples. Results Support from significant others toward mental health services was associated with intentions in early model steps but lost significance when cultural variables were added. Prior experience with mental health services was positively associated with future intentions. Among the variables entered in the final model, nationality had the largest standardized regression coefficient (β = 0.251), with South Koreans reporting higher observed scores than Italians. Resistance to change-beliefs was positively associated with intentions, though this finding should be treated with caution given measurement non-equivalence. Independent and interdependent self-construal contributed no significant explanatory variance. Discussion These exploratory findings suggest that nationality and individual-level cultural proxies may capture distinct dimensions of cultural associations and point to promising directions for future research on culturally adapted mental health interventions.

Background Loneliness, sleep quality, psychological resilience, and self-esteem are closely related to young adults’ everyday psychological adjustment. However, less is known about how sleep quality is associated with loneliness among higher vocational college students and whether this association depends on internal psychological resources. This study examined the association between sleep quality and loneliness and tested the mediating role of psychological resilience and the moderating role of self-esteem. Methods A cross-sectional survey was conducted from May to December 2023 in three higher vocational colleges in Heilongjiang Province, China. A total of 4,000 questionnaires were distributed, and 3,782 valid responses were included in the final analysis. Sleep quality, psychological resilience, self-esteem, and loneliness were assessed using the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index, 10-item Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale, Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale, and 20-item UCLA Loneliness Scale, respectively. Pearson correlation analysis, multiple linear regression analyses, bootstrap mediation analysis, and moderated mediation analysis were performed. Fully adjusted models controlled for age, sex, grade, residence, family economic status, parental marital status, dormitory relationship, classmate relationship, academic pressure, and physical activity frequency. Results Among the 3,782 participants, the mean age was 19.35 years (SD = 1.31); 1,593 participants were male (42.1%) and 2,189 were female (57.9%). Sleep quality was positively correlated with loneliness and negatively correlated with psychological resilience and self-esteem. Psychological resilience and self-esteem were negatively correlated with loneliness. In the fully adjusted mediation model, poorer sleep quality was associated with higher loneliness ( β = 0.556, p < 0.01) and lower psychological resilience ( β = −0.491, p < 0.01). Psychological resilience partially mediated the association between sleep quality and loneliness, with an indirect effect of 0.701, accounting for 45.93% of the total effect. The interaction between psychological resilience and self-esteem was significant ( β = 0.119, p < 0.01). Conditional indirect effects were strongest among students with low self-esteem and weakest among those with high self-esteem, and the index of moderated mediation was significant. Conclusion Poorer sleep quality was associated with higher loneliness among higher vocational college students, and this association was partly explained by lower psychological resilience. Self-esteem further buffered the psychological resilience–loneliness pathway. These findings suggest that combining sleep health education, resilience enhancement, and self-esteem support may provide useful directions for reducing loneliness among higher vocational college students.

Emotional intelligence (EI) and self-regulated learning (SRL) have emerged as central constructs for explaining why some students sustain engagement and achieve academically under pressure while others succumb to burnout and inefficiency. This mini-review synthesizes theoretical and empirical work on the association between EI and SRL and on the psychological pathways through which the two jointly shape academic engagement and performance. We first situate the EI–SRL relationship within self-regulation theory and contrast the ability and trait models of EI, specifying how each maps onto distinct components of SRL—ability EI onto metacognitive monitoring and strategy selection, trait EI onto motivational persistence—and noting that evidence consistently supports a positive EI–SRL association but diverges on effect sizes, mediating mechanisms, and boundary conditions related to culture, educational level, and measurement. We then map the multiple mediating and moderating mechanisms, self-directed learning, academic and creative self-efficacy, the engagement–burnout balance, social support, and metacognitive regulation, that translate EI into academic outcomes, highlighting evidence that EI frequently exerts its influence indirectly and that the relative importance of each pathway varies with context and developmental stage. Because much of this evidence derives from nursing and medical samples, we also delimit the populations to which the pathways can currently be generalized. We further review intervention research indicating that EI and SRL are trainable competencies whose cultivation can improve performance and reduce burnout, while cautioning that methodological limitations may inflate reported effects. Finally, we identify key gaps, fragmented theory, neglect of cultural variation, scarcity of longitudinal designs, and the need for rigorous, technology-integrated interventions, and outline directions for moving from understanding psychological pathways to optimizing educational practice. Together, these findings position EI and SRL as core, cultivable psychological resources for student success and underscore the value of integrative, context-sensitive, and developmentally informed research.

Introduction Sports and physical activities play a key role in young people's physical, social, and moral development. However, the outcomes of this development may vary according to several factors, including age, gender, nationality, years of practice (YOP), and training tier, defined by athletes' training and performance levels. Therefore, this study aimed to examine how young athletes' values differ across countries and according to age, gender, training tier, and YOP. Methods Within the framework of the European project “Faith in the future of sports”, the Youth Sport Values Questionnaire-2 (YSVQ-2), a 13-item survey categorizing values into Moral, Status, and Competence domains, was administered across four countries (Finland, Italy, Poland, Sweden). Results A MANOVA conducted on a sample of 381 participants across the four European countries revealed statistically significant differences across all three value dimensions (Status, Competence, and Moral) and training tiers, age, gender and country. Discussion Overall, the findings highlight subgroup variations in value endorsement, indicating that cross-national mean differences are moderated by training tier, age, and gender.

This article develops perceived language legitimacy (PLL) as a theoretically refined framework for examining how languages and varieties come to be regarded as authoritative, valuable, or marginal within particular social contexts. Existing accounts of language attitudes, symbolic power, and language ideology have provided important explanations of linguistic evaluation and inequality. Less attention, however, has been given to the psychological appraisal through which speakers anticipate whether a language or variety will be accepted as a credible resource for knowledge, identity, authority, or public participation within a particular domain. PLL is conceptualized as a context-sensitive psychological judgment that complements these existing sociolinguistic and social-psychological accounts by explaining how historically established hierarchies, normative expectations, identity positions, and unequal distributions of symbolic value are interpreted by speakers. It provides a psychological link between socially organized linguistic hierarchies and speakers’ expectations of recognition or devaluation as language users. The article situates PLL in relation to established concepts including language attitudes, prestige, ideology, and identity. It further considers how legitimacy judgements may influence belonging, self-worth, educational uptake, public voice, and participation in multilingual societies. By focusing on this psychological interface, the article provides an account of how linguistic inequalities are experienced by speakers and translated into language-related expectations and actions.

Introduction Student Evaluation of Teaching (SET) is essential for educational development; however, it increasingly suffers from survey fatigue and perfunctory responses, particularly among medical students facing high academic stress and cognitive loads. Traditional behavioral theories often overlook the psychological appraisal of “cost–benefit” in students’ decision-making processes. To address this gap, this study constructed an Extended Theory of Planned Behavior incorporating Perceived Value (Extended TPB) model, introducing “Perceived Value” as a central psychological mediator to explore the cognitive and motivational mechanisms driving students’ intentions to participate in SET. Methods A cross-sectional survey was conducted among 3,365 undergraduate medical students at a medical university in China. Data were collected using validated scales measuring attitude, subjective norm, perceived behavioral control, perceived value, and behavioral intention. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) was utilized to test the theoretical model, and a Bootstrapping approach with 5,000 resamples was applied to examine mediating effects. Results The Extended TPB model demonstrated an excellent fit and high explanatory power, accounting for 95.9% of the variance in SET behavioral intention. Perceived value exerted a strong positive predictive effect on behavioral intention ( β = 0.979, p < 0.001). Attitude ( β = 0.498), perceived behavioral control ( β = 0.333), and subjective norm ( β = 0.141) significantly and positively influenced perceived value. Furthermore, perceived value served as a crucial partial mediator between the three TPB antecedents and behavioral intention. Notably, senior students facing clinical rotations exhibited the lowest intention to evaluate. Discussion Perceived value acts as a critical psychological “gatekeeper” in behavioral decision-making. Stimulating intrinsic motivation (attitude) and reducing cognitive load (perceived behavioral control) are far more effective than imposing external Controlled motivation (subjective norm). To mitigate survey fatigue, educational institutions must foster “student agency” by establishing transparent closed-loop feedback systems, thereby rebuilding the perceived psychological utility of evaluations.

Previous studies have found a positive correlation between athletic expertise and the alerting effect; however, few studies have investigated these associations among soccer players. This study employed an alerting task to compare the alerting effect between elite soccer players and novices. We report an ERP study involving 68 participants, which allows us to reexamine the mechanisms underlying alerting. We observed that elite athletes had significantly shorter reaction times on both dual-cue and no-cue trials compared to novices, and found that elite athletes’ alerting network test scores were significantly higher. Elite soccer players generally exhibited faster reactions, and athletic expertise was positively correlated with cognitive performance. Further analysis revealed that, for elite athletes, the N1 peak amplitude evoked by dual-cue conditions in the central, parietal, parieto-occipital, and occipital regions was larger than that of novices; a similar pattern was observed in the central region for no-cue conditions. For dual-cue conditions, the parietal, parieto-occipital, and occipital regions exhibited smaller N1 peak amplitudes; no between-group differences were found in N1 latency. It was also found that, for the dual-cue condition, elite athletes exhibited smaller P2 peak amplitudes in the frontal, fronto-central, and central regions compared to novices. For the dual-cue condition, the prefrontal, frontal, fronto-central, and central regions exhibited larger P2 peak amplitudes. Additionally, the P2 latency for the dual-cue condition was earlier than for the no-cue condition, though no intergroup differences were observed. The results indicate that elite soccer players exhibit significant behavioral and neurophysiological advantages, further demonstrating that the enhancement of N1 and the attenuation of P2 are associated with soccer skill level. Elite soccer players exhibited larger N1 amplitudes and smaller P2 amplitudes in response to both dual-cue and no-cue stimuli. In summary, this study confirms that elite soccer players possess dual advantages in alerting function, providing new empirical evidence for understanding the neuroplasticity mechanisms by which long-term athletic training shapes cognitive function.

This qualitative study explores adolescents’ psychological adjustment when encountering online misinformation. Based on in-depth interviews with Taiwanese secondary school students, it examines how participants moved from initial acceptance of inaccurate information toward questioning, verification, recognition, and later adjustment. The analysis identified five interrelated patterns: initial acceptance and confusion, emerging doubt, verification, recognition and reflective reassessment, and subsequent adjustment. Although these patterns often appeared in a broadly temporal relationship, they did not constitute a fixed or universal sequence. Shaped by cognitive, emotional, and social-environmental factors, the patterns reflected adolescents’ developing self-efficacy and self-regulation. Findings suggest that self-efficacy beliefs, emotion regulation, and social and environmental feedback shaped participants’ movement among these patterns. Integrating Social Cognitive Theory with empirical evidence, the study advances a theory-informed account of media literacy development. Implications are discussed for educational interventions to enhance youth resilience to digital misinformation, including strengthening critical thinking and fact-checking skills and emphasizing the need for supportive environments. Study limitations and future research directions are also addressed.

Background Reinforcement sensitivity theory highlights the crucial role of two systems: the behavioral inhibition system (BIS) and the behavioral activation system (BAS) in explaining one’s tendency to respond to positive or adverse stimuli in diverse contexts, including educational. However, there is a lack of measurements that capture the punishment mechanism underlying students’ reactions when confronted with others’ opinions on their school failures. The research project aimed to test the psychometric properties of the Polish version of the students’ punishment sensitivity (SPS-PL) in the educational context, originally developed for a Turkish sample. Methods A sample of 548 students aged 12–15 years (53.1% boys) from randomly chosen public schools participated in the study. We used instruments that measure students’ punishment sensitivity (SPS-PL Scale) and school burnout (ESSBS). The factor structure (CFA), reliability, and validity analyses were performed. We also tested measurement invariance across gender. Results CFA indicated acceptable goodness of fit indexes for the three-factor structure of the Students Punishment Sensitivity construct with domains such as: Inhibition due to punishment (IDP), Negative attitudes towards punishment contexts (NATPC), Regulatory Effect of Punishment (REP). The SPS-PL Total Score and IDP demonstrated acceptable reliability ( α / ɷ over 0.80), while for NATCP and REP were α ≥ 0.67/ ɷ ≥ 0.68. We evidenced its discriminant and convergent validity, i.e., the HTMT correlations over 0.30, and positive correlations between punishment sensitivity indicators and school burnout. A higher punishment sensitivity was related to poor quality of relationships with classmates, teachers, and parents. Full configural and metric invariance, a well as partial scalar and strict invariance across gender were confirmed. The findings also indicate that girls scores higher in SPS – PL Total score, IDP, and REP than boys. Conclusion Studies on students’ punishment sensitivity in the context of school failure are scarce. At the same time, these adverse experiences may directly affect young people’s educational outcomes and seriously reduce their chances for flourishing development in the future. The research will enable scholars with a valid instrument that allows for a better understanding of this phenomenon.

Personalized learning path optimization based on cognitive diagnosis models faces two key gaps: the sparsity of large-scale educational data makes it difficult for traditional DINA models to converge, and the psychological mechanism underlying the effectiveness of personalized paths lacks empirical testing. To address these gaps, this study proposes and validates a personalized learning path optimization framework that integrates Bayesian cognitive diagnosis, knowledge space theory, and cognitive load theory. The study employed a mixed-data design: in the first phase, a Bayesian DINA model was trained on the EdNet public dataset ( N = 5,000) and a shortest remediation path algorithm was developed; in the second phase, a dataset with 120 students was used to validate the algorithm’s effectiveness, using the Bootstrap method to test the mediating effect of cognitive load and introducing a Hidden Markov Model to analyze the dynamic evolution of knowledge states. The results showed that the Bayesian DINA model converged successfully on data with 91.3% sparsity (R-hat < 1.01), with attribute mastery probability estimates ranging from 0.280 to 0.368; the personalized path improved efficiency by 23.6% compared to the fixed-order path (Cohen’s d = 0.98), which was cross-validated as a 22.0% time saving in a separate experiment involving probability learning; cognitive load was identified as the primary mediator between personalized paths and learning outcomes [indirect effect = 0.28, 95% CI (0.19, 0.37)], with learning motivation [indirect effect = 0.18, 95% CI (0.11, 0.25)] and self-efficacy [indirect effect = 0.12, 95% CI (0.06, 0.18)] serving as complementary mediators in a multiple mediation model. The three pathways together explained 86.6% of the total effect; the HMM identified A5 (Analytical Thinking) as a learning bottleneck, with a forward transition probability of only 0.31. This study provides a feasible methodological solution for cognitive diagnosis with sparse data, theoretically identifies the mediating pathway of cognitive load, and offers precise targets for bottleneck attribute intervention in intelligent tutoring systems in practice.

Educational support is usually regarded as a protective resource for vulnerable students, particularly those learning under social, economic, or psychological disadvantage. Yet support may become psychologically costly when it is experienced as overprotective, intrusive, or competence undermining. Drawing on self-determination theory, social support theory, and resilience research, this study develops the support burden model, which proposes that educational support may become burdensome when it protects students in ways that reduce autonomy, threaten competence, and limit opportunities for adaptive coping. Using a two-wave prospective survey structure with a six-week interval, the study examined vulnerable university students at baseline and follow-up (T1 N = 626; T2 n = 490; retention = 78.3%). Baseline-adjusted path models tested whether T1 overprotective educational support was prospectively associated with later autonomy frustration, competence threat, psychological resilience, psychological distress, and learning adjustment. Results indicated that overprotective educational support was positively associated with T2 autonomy frustration and competence threat. These two need-frustrating experiences were, in turn, associated with lower T2 resilience after baseline resilience and general educational support were controlled. Resilience was associated with lower psychological distress and higher learning adjustment. Indirect-effect estimates supported the proposed pathway from overprotective support to poorer adjustment through autonomy frustration, competence threat, and resilience. The exploratory interaction involving baseline self-efficacy was in the expected direction but did not reach conventional significance. Because the overprotective educational support scale is newly developed and the design is observational, the findings should be interpreted as short-term longitudinal associations rather than definitive causal evidence. The findings suggest that educational support should be empowering rather than substitutive, preserving student agency while providing accessible resources.

It asks how motivational processes are activated, translated into behaviour, disrupted by constraints and reorganized as individuals and contexts change.Several contributions show that motivation is not always associated with physical activity directly.Instead, part of this association may be accounted for by proximal mechanisms that determine whether intention can be enacted. Among Chinese college students, Sheng et al. found that a broad measure of internal exercise motivation was directly associated with physical activity and also indirectly associated through exercise self-efficacy, whereas motivation linked to institutional requirements showed no direct association once self-efficacy was considered. Pan et al. similarly identified exercise self-efficacy as a mediator between physical activity motivation and activity level in medical students, while kinesiophobia weakened the remaining direct association between motivation and activity. Li et al. extended this logic into young adulthood by showing that satisfaction of basic psychological needs in physical education was associated with concurrent exercise behaviour through self-efficacy, with gender functioning as a boundary condition. These studies converge on a simple but important proposition: wanting to move and believing one can move are related but non-interchangeable processes.The same distinction appears in work on more enduring psychological resources. Chen et al. combined variable-centred and person-centred analyses, finding that self-efficacy partly accounted for the association between grit and physical activity, demonstrating the value of studying both average associations and motivational profiles. Outdoor recreation research by Yılmaz likewise positioned selfefficacy as a central resource for campers, illustrating that perceived capability is relevant not only to prescribed exercise but also to voluntary participation in uncertain natural environments. In physically active women, Kabak et al. linked physical activity self-worth with body appreciation through psychological resilience, indicating that positive psychological resources may support a more favourable embodied self-concept rather than merely increasing activity volume.A second set of studies shows that motivation can also operate through identity and social confidence. Jin et al. reported that exercise identity was associated with college students' perceived social self-efficacy through a chain of mediating processes. This finding shifts attention from "doing exercise" to "being an exerciser": repeated participation may acquire self-defining meaning, which can then support confidence in social situations. In ultimate frisbee participants, Tian et al. found that leisure motivation was associated with continuous participation intention through leisure involvement and information acquisition. Sustained participation, in this view, develops as individuals invest attention, knowledge and personal significance in an activity.Taken together, these contributions argue against models in which motivation is treated as a single upstream predictor. Motivation is better understood as a pathway involving perceived competence, efficacy, identity, involvement and interpretation. The practical implication is equally clear. Interventions that attempt to persuade people that exercise is beneficial may fail when they do not also create mastery experiences, realistic progression, meaningful choice and evidence that action is feasible.The collection also demonstrates that motivation is socially produced. Jiang et al. showed that peer support was associated with college students' physical exercise through control beliefs and subjective experience, while intrinsic value moderated several later links in this process. Song and Yang similarly linked students' perceived campus sport environment to physical fitness through peer support and perceived physical literacy. These findings position the social and material environment not as background scenery but as an active component of motivational development. A supportive environment can make activity visible, normal and accessible; it can also provide feedback through which individuals reinterpret their own competence.At an earlier stage of life, Zheng et al. identified an association between parental support and communityresource use for physical activity with fundamental movement skills in children. This is especially important because motivational adaptation begins before individuals can articulate formal exercise goals.Children who receive support and access to community activity resources are more likely to acquire both the skills and the confidence from which later motivation can develop. Çifçi and Demir broadened this perspective through a socio-ecological analysis of Turkish school-aged adolescents, integrating personal and psychological characteristics with social and environmental factors. Their work reinforces the need to avoid attributing inactivity solely to insufficient willpower when behaviour is nested within families, schools, neighbourhoods and cultural expectations.The role of institutional environments is more ambiguous. Formal requirements can initiate participation, but their capacity to sustain it depends on internalization. The contrast observed by Sheng et al. between intrinsic and institutional motivation suggests that compulsory structures are most productive when they build self-efficacy rather than merely enforce attendance. Xiang's study of university students adds an important educational pathway: perceived physical literacy was positively associated with subjective wellbeing both directly and indirectly through autonomous sport motivation. Physical education may therefore become motivationally consequential when it equips students to understand, value and take responsibility for movement, rather than simply requiring temporary compliance.Social influence also operates through enjoyment and engagement. Kaçay et al. identified enjoyment as a motivational driver of sport continuation, with engagement and social support participating in a moderated mediation process. This work helps explain why technically sound programmes can still lose participants: an activity that is beneficial but affectively unrewarding is unlikely to become self-sustaining. The qualitative study by Wendi et al. reached a compatible conclusion in Chinese college students, documenting exercise motives, perceived barriers and preferences regarding high-intensity interval training. Participants do not respond to an intervention format in the abstract; they evaluate whether it is enjoyable, time-efficient, tolerable, socially acceptable and compatible with their goals.Min's analysis of adult taekwondo provides a particularly useful illustration of motivational adaptation.By emphasizing entertainment motivation in the redefinition of a martial art as modern leisure, the study shows how established activities can remain relevant when their meaning changes for particular participant groups. The question is not whether a practice possesses one authentic motive, but whether it can offer forms of value that fit contemporary adult lives. Motivation is thus not only located within the participant. It is co-designed through the way activities are framed, taught and experienced. The exploratory secondary analysis by Kuprat et al. extends this concern to people with schizophrenia, examining individual factors associated with adherence to supervised exercise and the relationship between personality characteristics and physical fitness. Clinical exercise programmes often demonstrate efficacy among those who attend, while adherence remains the decisive implementation challenge. In this context, motivational adaptation requires attention to affective expectations, previous sport experiences, personality, social support and the practical burden of participation. A programme can be clinically appropriate and still be motivationally inaccessible.Stress also modifies apparently positive motivational processes. Liu et al. found that a favourable sport event destination image promoted near-term post-event sport participation through sport attraction, but that perceived stress weakened the translation of attraction into participation. This study is valuable because it captures a common failure point: inspiration generated by an event may be genuine, yet everyday stress can prevent it from becoming action. The legacy of sport events should consequently be evaluated not only by whether spectators develop greater attraction to the sport, but also by whether postevent environments provide low-friction opportunities to participate.A major contribution of the Research Topic is its refusal, taken as a whole, to reduce inactivity to individual psychology. Liu et al. analysed Chinese residents through the lenses of spatial and temporal justice. Their study reminds us that people require both places in which to be active and discretionary time in which to use them. Unequal access to safe facilities, transport, leisure time and flexible schedules can produce motivational patterns that are subsequently misread as differences in preference or discipline.and sport participation during the COVID-19 pandemic. By modelling complex and potentially nonlinear relationships among personal, social and contextual predictors, the study illustrates both the promise and the caution required when applying data-intensive methods to motivation. Machine learning can identify complex patterns and heterogeneous subgroups, but prediction should not be mistaken for explanation.The scientific value lies in combining predictive performance with interpretability and theory, so that identified determinants can inform equitable intervention.The collection also expands the meaning of participation beyond conventional exercise. Lin et al.examined college students' willingness to engage in sport-based disability assistance volunteering. This work demonstrates that sport-related motivation may include prosocial purpose, inclusion and civic identity. It also challenges a narrow focus on personal health outcomes: participation can be motivated by the opportunity to support others and contribute to a more inclusive sport culture.The diversity of settings is therefore conceptually important. Motivation in a compulsory physical education class, a transplant rehabilitation pathway, an outdoor camp, an adult taekwondo club, a university sport event or a disability assistance programme cannot be assumed to operate identically.What travels across contexts are not fixed motives but recurrent functions: developing competence, experiencing enjoyment, finding meaning, connecting with others, reducing uncertainty and perceiving that participation is realistically possible.Digital transformation appears in this collection both as an opportunity and as a source of concern. Kaçay et al. examined AI-related anxiety and employment anxiety among prospective sport managers, highlighting that technological change alters not only service delivery but also professional identity and perceived future security. For the physical activity field, this is a reminder that AI is never motivationally neutral. Systems that promise personalisation may simultaneously produce uncertainty, surveillance concerns or diminished autonomy. Fu et al. developed an evaluation index system for user satisfaction with immersive virtual reality exergaming. Their work is particularly relevant because satisfaction in digital physical activity is multidimensional: technical performance, immersion, usability, safety, enjoyment and perceived value can all determine whether novelty becomes repeated engagement. Digital interventions should therefore be evaluated as motivational environments, not merely as devices. A technically accurate platform that frustrates users, undermines competence or fails to create meaningful progression is unlikely to support sustained activity.The future lies neither in technological enthusiasm nor rejection. It lies in theory-informed digital design.Wearables, virtual reality, mobile applications and AI can reduce friction, provide timely feedback and adapt challenge to capability. They can also overemphasise metrics, create dependence on external rewards or intensify inequity for people with limited access and digital literacy. The question is not whether technology motivates, but what form of motivation it cultivates, for whom, under what conditions and for how long.Across the articles in this collection, a coherent agenda emerges. First, future studies should distinguish motivation to initiate activity from the processes required to maintain it. Cross-sectional associations remain useful for theory building, but sustained behaviour demands longitudinal, intensive and experimental designs capable of tracking how motives, barriers and contexts change. Second, research should examine transitions. Adolescence, entry into university, retirement, diagnosis, transplantation and the return from a sport event are moments when previous motivational arrangements may no longer fit. These periods offer both heightened risk of disengagement and opportunities for redesign. Third, intervention science should shift from motivational intensity to motivational fit. The goal is not to maximise a generic motivation score. It is to align the form of support with the person's current needs and constraints. Someone with low confidence may require mastery and graded challenge; someone experiencing fear may require safety and symptom interpretation; someone under severe time pressure may require accessible and brief options; someone whose motivation has become compulsive may require flexibility and recovery. Adaptive interventions should therefore respond not only to behaviour but to the mechanisms limiting behaviour. Fourth, the field should integrate individual and structural explanations.Self-efficacy, enjoyment, identity and autonomous regulation are important, but they operate within distributions of time, space, social support, resources and institutional power. A scientifically mature account of motivation must be able to explain both why two people in similar environments behave differently and why apparently similar motivational interventions produce unequal outcomes across environments. Finally, digital tools should be used to support, rather than replace, human motivational processes. AI-enabled systems could detect changing barriers, tailor feedback and identify periods of vulnerability, but their value will depend on transparency, privacy, inclusivity and the preservation of autonomy. The strongest future models will connect psychological theory, implementation science, socioecological analysis and adaptive technology.The contributions to this Research Topic collectively suggest that motivation for physical activity is dynamic, relational and embodied. It is built through experiences of competence, enjoyment, identity and social connection; translated into action through efficacy, opportunity and perceived control; and disrupted by fear, stress, inequality, emotional difficulty and changing life circumstances. Motivation is therefore not a possession that active people have and inactive people lack. It is an adaptive relationship between a person, an activity and a context.This perspective changes the central scientific question. Rather than asking only how people can be motivated to become active, the field should ask how motivational processes can remain adaptive across the lifespan. Such a shift directs attention towards transitions, feedback loops, implementation and context. It also encourages a more humane practice: instead of attributing disengagement to deficient willpower, researchers and practitioners can identify which component of the person-activity-context relationship no longer fits.The lasting contribution of this collection is thus not the identification of a universal motive, but the recognition that motivation itself must be adaptive. The future of physical activity promotion will depend not on motivating more people, but on designing systems capable of sustaining long-term engagement as individuals, contexts and societies continue to evolve.

Introduction Professional musicians may be exposed to distinctive occupational, psychosocial, and artistic demands, yet integrated evidence on their mental health, psychological resources, and treatment utilization remains scarce. Therefore, this study examined mental health indicators, including symptom burden and self-reported diagnosed mental disorders, personal psychological resources (resilience, self-efficacy, and self-esteem), occupational characteristics, and treatment use in a nationwide sample of professional musicians and music students in Germany. Methods Data were collected through a large, anonymous, longitudinal online survey across different musical genres. Baseline data were obtained from 1,392 participants January–June 2024; 327 participants completed the follow-up in June 2025 (at least 1 year after baseline). Descriptive analyses, subgroup comparisons, cross-sectional regression models, and longitudinal regression models were used to examine symptom burden, diagnoses, resources, sociodemographic and occupational differences, and change over time. Results At baseline, clinically relevant symptom levels were common: 30% of participants scored in the moderate or severe range for generalized anxiety symptoms, 32% scored in the moderate to severe range for depressive symptoms, and 22% reported a current diagnosed mental disorder. Employment status emerged as the most consistent subgroup correlate, with additional differences by gender, job role, and genre. Resilience, self-efficacy, and self-esteem were each negatively associated with depressive symptoms, generalized anxiety symptoms, and music performance anxiety, with self-esteem showing particularly strong associations. Overall, mental health indicators and personal resources were largely stable over 12 months, while music students reported higher depressive symptoms at follow-up beyond baseline levels. Treatment utilization was substantial, with half of participants reporting lifetime treatment for psychological complaints. Discussion These findings indicate a substantial and unevenly distributed mental health burden among professional musicians in Germany. Although interpretation is limited by the observational design, non-probabilistic sampling, reliance on self-report, and substantial attrition at follow-up, the findings point to the relevance of prevention and support strategies that adequately address psychological resources and occupational conditions. Such provision may be broadly accessible while remaining responsive to differences in employment status, genre, gender-related experiences, barriers to care, support needs, and individual characteristics and contexts. These implications may guide future research and context-sensitive practice, although their effectiveness and clinical relevance require further evaluation Clinical trial registration The study was pre-registered in the German Clinical Trials Register in January 2024 ( https://drks.de/search/en/trial/DRKS00033401 ).

Adolescence is a peak period for the onset of mental disorders, yet the majority of young people fail to meet recommended physical activity levels. This convergence of rising psychological distress and declining physical activity has positioned schools, settings that reach nearly all adolescents, as a central platform for population-level mental health promotion through movement. This mini review synthesizes recent evidence on the effects of school-based physical activity interventions on adolescent mental health, focusing on the psychological mechanisms that carry these effects, the contextual factors that modify them, and the controversies that remain unresolved. Evidence is kept in three tiers throughout: trials and meta-analyses of school-based interventions, which form the primary evidence base; longitudinal cohort studies; and cross-sectional or out-of-school observational studies, which are used only as supplementary evidence and cannot show how school-based interventions work. Meta-analyses and systematic reviews indicate that such interventions produce small but statistically significant improvements in depressive symptoms, anxiety, self-esteem, and social competence, although effects are inconsistent across studies, specific to particular outcomes, and are often absent in unselected samples. Mediation studies, most of them cross-sectional and few embedded in school programmes, converge on self-efficacy, self-esteem, social support, and emotion regulation as candidate pathways, frequently modeled as serial (chain) effects; such models describe statistical mediation and do not establish the mechanisms through which interventions act. Sex, age, socioeconomic status, and the school and family environment plausibly modify these effects, but moderation findings are inconsistent in direction, with stronger associations reported in girls for some outcomes and in boys for others, so recommendations for sex-specific programming remain premature. Substantial disagreement persists regarding the relative efficacy of different intervention modalities, the shape of the dose–response relationship, and whether short-term gains can be sustained, a question that itself conflates maintenance of activity behavior, persistence of psychological benefit, and long-term correlates of sport participation. We argue that methodological limitations, the neglect of social inequality, the near-absence of mediation testing within trials, and the largely untested potential of emerging delivery models constitute priority directions for a field that could yet deliver scalable and sustainable mental health benefits for young people.

Parental phubbing, a growing phenomenon in the digital era, has raised concerns about its impact on young children’s development. However, little is known about how parental phubbing influences preschool children’s social–emotional competence and the underlying family mechanisms. Drawing on social learning theory, attachment theory, and family systems theory, this study examines the mediating roles of family intimacy and parent–child attachment. A total of 1,113 parents of preschool children in China participated in this study. The results showed that parental phubbing was negatively associated with children’s social–emotional competence. First, family intimacy mediated the relationship between parental phubbing and children’s social–emotional competence. Second, parent–child attachment also served as a mediator. More importantly, a significant serial mediation pathway was identified, whereby parental phubbing reduced family intimacy, which in turn weakened parent–child attachment and ultimately impaired children’s social–emotional competence. These findings highlight the importance of family processes in understanding the negative effects of parental phubbing and provide practical implications for promoting young children’s social–emotional development.

Background Involution, or “Neijuan” in Chinese, has recently been operationalized as escalating and often irrational competition characterized by increased effort with diminishing returns. Although involution has become increasingly salient in Chinese higher education, little is known about its association with problematic smartphone use (PSU) among college students. Grounded in the Interaction of Person-Affect-Cognition-Execution (I-PACE) model and Conservation of Resources (COR) theory, this study examined whether anxiety mediated the association between involution perception and PSU, and whether psychological resilience moderated this indirect association. Given that resilience is typically viewed as a protective factor but may also facilitate sustained, instrumental engagement under pressure, this study explored its potential pathway-specific moderating roles. Methods A cross-sectional survey was conducted among 1,002 undergraduate students from a university in Guangzhou, China (573 female, 429 male; mean age = 20.10 years, SD = 1.35). Participants completed validated self-report measures assessing involution perception (encompassing psychological pressure, social norms, competitive behaviors, and resource scarcity), PSU, anxiety, and psychological resilience. A moderated mediation model (PROCESS Model 8) was tested with 5,000 bootstrap samples, controlling for age and gender. Results Involution perception was positively associated with PSU and anxiety, while psychological resilience was negatively associated with all three variables. Anxiety significantly mediated the association between involution perception and PSU. Psychological resilience moderated both pathways, but in opposite directions. As hypothesized, the positive association between involution perception and anxiety was weaker at higher levels of resilience. However, the direct association between involution perception and PSU was significantly stronger at higher levels of resilience. Conclusion The findings reveal a pathway-specific role of psychological resilience in the context of involution. While resilience buffers the emotional toll of competitive pressure by reducing anxiety, it simultaneously amplifies the direct behavioral reliance on smartphones, potentially reflecting sustained, high-intensity engagement in a demanding environment. This pathway-specific effect suggests that resilience is not a uniformly protective factor. The results underscore the utility of targeting anxiety to mitigate PSU and highlight the need for nuanced interventions that distinguish between reducing emotional distress and managing device-dependent coping patterns in competitive educational settings.

Background Chat-based live streaming is a highly interactive digital environment in which viewers comment, react, and engage in real time. However, the psychological mechanisms and boundary conditions linking active participation to wellbeing remain unclear. Drawing on self-determination theory and social presence theory, this study examined whether social presence and social connectedness sequentially mediate the association between active live-stream participation and subjective wellbeing, and whether trait fear of missing out (FoMO) moderates the participation-based pathways. Methods A cross-sectional online survey was conducted with 467 adult viewers of chat-based live-streaming platforms in China. A regression-based moderated serial mediation model, corresponding to conceptual Model 85, was estimated in Python. The analyses controlled for 11 demographic and behavioral covariates and used heteroscedasticity-consistent standard errors. Johnson–Neyman analyses were used to probe conditional associations across levels of FoMO. Results Active participation was positively associated with subjective wellbeing, both directly and indirectly through social presence and social connectedness, independently and in sequence. Trait FoMO was essentially unrelated to wellbeing at the bivariate level but robustly moderated the participation-based pathways. Johnson–Neyman analyses indicated that participation was positively associated with wellbeing for roughly three quarters of viewers, specifically those below a FoMO level of 3.40 on the 1–5 scale. This association weakened to non-significance at higher levels of FoMO and reversed only among a small minority of viewers, approximately 7%, at the highest levels of FoMO. Conclusion Active participation in chat-based live streaming may function as a relational resource associated with subjective wellbeing, but its psychological value is conditional on dispositional anxiety. FoMO operated in this study as a boundary condition on the quality of participation rather than as a direct determinant of flourishing.

Introduction This study systematically examines the drivers and barriers influencing students' sustained usage intention toward artificial intelligence-generated content (AIGC) tools in educational settings. As AIGC tools are increasingly introduced into teaching and learning activities, understanding how students accept, evaluate, and continue to use these tools is essential for promoting sustainable digital learning in higher education. Grounded in the Uses and Gratifications Theory and the Perceived Value Theory, this study develops an integrated model to explain students' continuance intention toward AIGC tools from both motivational and inhibitory perspectives. Methods Questionnaire data were collected from 528 Chinese university students and analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). The study also examined the moderating role of perceived trust and conducted multi-group analysis to explore differences across student groups. Results Content gratification, utilitarian gratification, and social gratification were significantly positively associated with continued usage intention. Among these factors, learning needs and perceived usefulness showed the strongest positive associations, whereas enjoyment within hedonic gratification showed no significant association. Perceived risk and perceived cost were significantly negatively associated with continued usage intention. Perceived trust significantly moderated the relationships between key gratifications, perceived sacrifices, and sustained usage intention. Multi-group analysis further revealed that postgraduates placed greater emphasis on information retrieval, undergraduates relied more on trust to reduce uncertainty, and infrequent users were more strongly associated with novelty. Discussion These findings contribute to understanding the psychological mechanisms underlying students' sustained use of AIGC tools and provide practical implications for their responsible integration into higher education. Universities and educators should enhance the functional and learning-support value of AIGC tools while establishing clear usage guidelines, strengthening privacy protection, reducing cost barriers, and providing differentiated instructional support.

Introduction Competitive sport is increasingly affected by environmental challenges. Athletes compete in performance-oriented systems that often constrain pro-environmental action. Navigating ecological sustainability-related cognition and affect may therefore impose additional mental load on athletes and require self-regulation, potentially competing with performance-relevant cognitive and emotional resources, consistent with resource-based models of self-control. However, little is known about how athletes experience ecological sustainability within their competitive sport and how they perceive its impact on performance. This qualitative study examined how competitive athletes cognitively and affectively engage with ecological sustainability and how these experiences are perceived in relation to their sporting performance. Methods Semi-structured interviews were conducted with nine athletes from different sports and competitive levels. Data were analyzed using structured deductive qualitative content analysis. Results Athletes expressed strong pro-environmental attitudes but experienced a pronounced and recurring value-action gap driven by structural constraints such as competition schedules, travel demands, and sponsorship obligations. Ecological sustainability-related cognition and affect (e.g., guilt, frustration, sadness) were salient across sports but were actively regulated, suppressed, or compartmentalized in performance contexts to maintain focus and competitive readiness. While athletes rarely reported immediate performance impairments, sustainability-related concerns contributed to indirect performance-relevant strain through travel fatigue, disrupted preparation, and cumulative mental load affecting recovery and well-being. Engagement in sustainability initiatives emerged as a central coping strategy and was often experienced as empowering; sport itself served as an important coping context. Discussion Overall, ecological sustainability functioned both as a psychological burden and a motivational resource in competitive sport. While athletes expressed strong motivation to engage with sustainability, their ability to act consistently with these values was often constrained by both the structures of competitive sport and individual decisions.

Background Evaluating Japanese language learning strategies is challenging because language acquisition depends on cognitive, motivational, instructional, and sociocultural factors that cannot be adequately assessed using conventional evaluation methods. A systematic framework that integrates multiple educational dimensions and accommodates uncertainty is therefore needed. Methods This study proposes a hybrid Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process (FAHP) and Fuzzy Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (FTOPSIS) framework to evaluate Japanese language learning strategies from expert and learner perspectives. Six evaluation criteria were identified through a comprehensive literature review and expert consultation. Expert judgments were used to derive criterion weights using FAHP, while data collected from 30 Japanese language learners representing different age groups and proficiency levels were incorporated into the FTOPSIS model to rank alternative learning strategies. A sensitivity analysis was conducted to evaluate the robustness of the proposed framework. Results Linguistic Complexity (22.1%), Cultural Immersion (20.4%), and Learner Motivation (17.8%) were identified as the most influential evaluation criteria. Among the evaluated strategies, the Integrated Immersive Strategy achieved the highest closeness coefficient (0.837), indicating the strongest alignment with the ideal learning profile. Sensitivity analysis confirmed that the ranking remained stable under substantial variations in criterion weights, demonstrating the reliability of the proposed model. Conclusion The proposed FAHP–FTOPSIS framework provides a transparent and robust approach to evaluating Japanese language learning strategies by integrating expert knowledge with learner perspectives under uncertainty. The findings support the educational value of immersive, learner-centered, and technology-supported instructional approaches and provide practical guidance for educators, curriculum designers, and researchers seeking evidence-based strategies for Japanese language education.

In clinical practice in China, particularly in cancer treatment, family decision-making plays an important role. Over the past few years, efforts have been made across China to promote the implementation of palliative care. Influenced by traditional Chinese culture, an ethical conflict exists between patient autonomous decision-making and family-oriented choices driven by traditional filial piety. This study explores the ethical boundaries of family participation, focusing on how traditional filial piety and family interests affect the judgment of patients’ best interests within the Chinese cultural context. The analysis reveals that the Confucian virtue of filial piety may assist patients during treatment, but may infringe upon patients’ rights and complicate the process of informed consent. Through philosophical reflection, the study reconstructs a context-adapted ethical framework that prioritizes patient wellbeing, takes into account psychological dignity, and clarifies reasonable limits for family participation. The revised standard emphasizes informed consent, transparent communication, and culturally sensitive care, aiming to promote ethical, humane, and sustainable shared decision-making in oncology palliative care.

Three-dimensional geosynthetic Cellular Confinement Systems (CCS), fabricated from advanced polymeric alloy materials with high tensile strength and dynamic modulus, offer a promising alternative to conventional concrete or deep foundations for supporting machinery subject to cyclic loading. Despite growing laboratory evidence of their vibration attenuation capabilities, no widely accepted design methodology exists for full-scale dynamic foundation applications. This paper presents a comprehensive analytical design framework for geocell-reinforced granular foundations subject to machine-induced dynamic loading. The framework integrates composite Poisson’s ratio estimation, modified dynamic shear modulus, improved damping characteristics, and strain and amplitude checks aligned with ACI 351.3R-18 guidelines. Vertical static stiffness is independently verified using the impedance function approach from Canadian Foundation Engineering Manual. A complete design workflow is formulated covering load analysis, bearing capacity, strain verification, resonance checks, amplitude limits, acceleration limits, and damping evaluation. The methodology is applied to two compressor station foundations in northern Alberta, Canada, where high-modulus novel polymeric alloy geocell replaced a conventional piled or concrete foundation design. Field performance observations over 20 months of continuous operation, including two freeze-thaw cycles, confirmed that all design parameters remained within predicted bounds: no measurable settlement was detected within the reinforced zone (estimated visual detection threshold <5 mm), ground-surface displacement amplitude remained below approximately 0.05–0.1 mm, and ground vibration velocity of 0.01 mm/s was well below the Canadian Foundation Engineering Manual human perception threshold of 0.5 mm/s. The 37.1% slimmer cross-section design achieved a calculated 76.6% reduction in amplitude of vibration, 48.2% strain reduction, and 58.3% improvement in damping performance relative to unreinforced conditions. No maintenance interventions were required compared to monthly maintenance for the prior unreinforced gravel pad.

Introduction Oil discovery in the 1960s transformed Dubai from a trading port to an oil-rich emirate. This transformation brought along the post-oil modernization era, which severely impacted historic districts to make way for new developments. After facing a massive demolition threat in the 1970s, Al Fahidi historic district has been reconstructed, conserved and replicated over the last three decades to elevate its appeal as a heritage tourism destination. This research aims to investigate the process of heritagization and re-heritagization that underlie the transformation of Al Fahidi historic district into a heritage tourism destination. Methods The study employs an exploratory case study design grounded in a qualitative methodological approach, triangulating a comprehensive review of the literature with discourse analysis, archival records, and a review of promotional materials as its primary data collection methods. Results The analysis dissects the heritagization process of Al Fahidi and reveals that the development of the Al Seef waterfront, which blends modern and traditional interpretations of heritage, transformed the historic district into a heritage product. This transformation brought increased tourist count but questioned the notion of authenticity as heritage is replicated for socio-economic gains. Based on the analysis, findings reveal that the integration of Al Fahidi into a unified Dubai-Historic-District through re-heritagization represents a shift in how Al Fahidi is re-interpreted and activated as retro-aesthetics heritage tourism destination, as part of Dubai's Masterplan 2040. Discussion The re-heritagization process is designed to reverse the aesthetically driven-heritagization of Al Fahidi and fit the unified historic district into Dubai's broader global cultural narrative and the National Strategy for the Cultural and Creative Industries, which aims to enhance the sector's growth and increase its contribution to 5% of the UAE's GDP by 2031.