How Autonomy Support Sustains Emotional Engagement in College Physical Education: A Longitudinal Study.

Traditional educational models and assessment tools have neglected the motivation and sustainability of students' emotional engagement in physical education classes. The impact of self-support on emotional engagement in physical education classes and its underlying mechanisms remain under-explored. The present study was a 6-month longitudinal study of 718 college students at two universities in a remote area of southern Shaanxi Province, China. The study aimed to examine the effects of autonomy support on affective engagement in physical education classes and to analyze the longitudinal mediating roles of self-acceptance and academic self-efficacy. The study found that physical education teacher support and parental autonomy support significantly promoted college students' emotional engagement in physical education classes. Chained longitudinal mediation analyses indicated that self-acceptance and academic self-efficacy played chained mediating roles in promoting college students' affective engagement in physical education classes in different supportive environments. This study transcends a static, cross-sectional research perspective, validates and extends self-determination theory, and promotes affective engagement in physical education learning through different autonomy supports that enhance the development of self-acceptance and academic self-efficacy in college students, providing a reference for enhancing physical education teaching and learning and improving the quality of teaching and learning.