Academics–Athletics Conflict and College Athletes’ Well-Being: The Mediating Effect of Negative Emotions and the Moderating Effect of Life Motivation

For college athletes who perform dual roles (student and athlete), the academics–athletics conflict is inevitable in daily life. Although existing studies have focused on the adverse effects of this conflict on the well-being of college athletes, they have not yet determined the underlying mechanism and effective measures to alleviate it. To explore the underlying mechanism of academics–athletics conflict, which affects the well-being of college athletes, we constructed a moderated mediating model to examine the critical role of negative emotions and life motivation in the relationship between them. The study randomly selected 802 college athletes from China to examine the relationships between academics–athletics conflict, negative emotions, eudaimonic motives, hedonic motives, and life satisfaction. The results showed that (1) negative emotions played an important mediating role between academics–athletics conflict and college athletes’ life satisfaction, with more than 79% of the effect of academics–athletics conflict being achieved through negative emotions. (2) Eudaimonic motives significantly moderated the first half of the mediation path of negative emotions between academics–athletics conflict and life satisfaction. Individuals with high eudaimonic motives experienced fewer negative emotions in the medium and weak conflict conditions. (3) Hedonic motives had a significant moderating effect on the second half of the mediation path. Individuals with high hedonic motives had greater life satisfaction across negative emotion conditions. This study provides important insights for a comprehensive understanding and in-depth study of the relationship between conflict and the well-being of college athletes, as well as a reference for the quality-of-life enhancement and motivation development for college athletes.