Perceived Team Ethical Climate and Athletes' Prosocial Behavior: Roles of Sport Friendship Quality and Moral Disengagement.
4 affiliations
- 1School of Physical Education, Huaibei Normal University, Huaibei, People's Republic of China.
- 2Department of Sport and Health, Shinhan University, Uijeongbu-si, Republic of Korea.
- 3School of Physical Education and Training, Capital University of Physical Education and Sports, Beijing, People's Republic of China.
- 4School of Sports and Leisure, Shandong Sport University, Jinan, People's Republic of China.
Abstract
Helping teammates and helping opponents involve different interpersonal demands, but how perceived team ethical climates relate to these behaviors through relational and moral-cognitive processes remains unclear. Guided by Ethical Climate Theory and Social Cognitive Theory, we examined associations of caring, rules-based, and self-interested climates with both behavioral targets through sport friendship quality and moral disengagement. A cross-sectional survey included 583 Chinese athletes aged 16-24 years from 66 training teams. Self-report data were analyzed using latent-variable structural equation modeling, jointly examining three correlated climate dimensions, a second-order sport friendship quality factor, moral disengagement, and separate teammate- and opponent-directed outcomes. Analyses accounted for team clustering and adjusted for age, sex, training experience, competitive level, region, and sport discipline. Indirect associations and between-climate contrasts were evaluated using 5000 whole-team bootstrap resamples. Caring and rules-based climates showed positive total associations with both outcomes, whereas self-interested climate showed negative associations. Caring climate showed positive indirect associations through friendship quality alone and through the specified friendship quality-moral disengagement pathway; the pathway through moral disengagement alone was not supported. Self-interested climate showed negative indirect associations through friendship quality, moral disengagement, and their specified sequence. For rules-based climate, only the indirect pathway through moral disengagement was supported. Friendship quality was positively associated with both outcomes and negatively associated with moral disengagement. Between-climate contrasts supported differences in friendship-related and serial indirect associations for both teammates and opponents. Supported direct associations were positive for caring climate toward teammates and rules-based climate toward opponents, and negative for self-interested climate toward opponents. Perceived team ethical climates showed distinguishable patterns of association with prosocial behavior involving friendship experiences and moral self-regulation. The findings identify candidate processes for prospective research on prosocial conduct within and beyond athletes' teams. The cross-sectional design precludes conclusions about temporal ordering or causal mediation.
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BibTeX
@article{liu2026perceived,
title = {{Perceived Team Ethical Climate and Athletes' Prosocial Behavior: Roles of Sport Friendship Quality and Moral Disengagement.}},
author = {Yunyang Liu and Jiawen Gao and Zihan Bao and Ziyang Li and Fangyingzi Huang and Fenghu Liu and Shun Wang and Heng Lü},
journal = {Psychology research and behavior management},
year = {2026},
month = nov,
doi = {10.2147/prbm.s650985},
url = {https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42999850},
note = {CC BY-NC},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Perceived Team Ethical Climate and Athletes' Prosocial Behavior: Roles of Sport Friendship Quality and Moral Disengagement.
AU - Yunyang Liu
AU - Jiawen Gao
AU - Zihan Bao
AU - Ziyang Li
AU - Fangyingzi Huang
AU - Fenghu Liu
AU - Shun Wang
AU - Heng Lü
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/11/03
JO - Psychology research and behavior management
DO - 10.2147/prbm.s650985
UR - https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42999850
AB - Helping teammates and helping opponents involve different interpersonal demands, but how perceived team ethical climates relate to these behaviors through relational and moral-cognitive processes remains unclear. Guided by Ethical Climate Theory and Social Cognitive Theory, we examined associations of caring, rules-based, and self-interested climates with both behavioral targets through sport friendship quality and moral disengagement. A cross-sectional survey included 583 Chinese athletes aged 16-24 years from 66 training teams. Self-report data were analyzed using latent-variable structural equation modeling, jointly examining three correlated climate dimensions, a second-order sport friendship quality factor, moral disengagement, and separate teammate- and opponent-directed outcomes. Analyses accounted for team clustering and adjusted for age, sex, training experience, competitive level, region, and sport discipline. Indirect associations and between-climate contrasts were evaluated using 5000 whole-team bootstrap resamples. Caring and rules-based climates showed positive total associations with both outcomes, whereas self-interested climate showed negative associations. Caring climate showed positive indirect associations through friendship quality alone and through the specified friendship quality-moral disengagement pathway; the pathway through moral disengagement alone was not supported. Self-interested climate showed negative indirect associations through friendship quality, moral disengagement, and their specified sequence. For rules-based climate, only the indirect pathway through moral disengagement was supported. Friendship quality was positively associated with both outcomes and negatively associated with moral disengagement. Between-climate contrasts supported differences in friendship-related and serial indirect associations for both teammates and opponents. Supported direct associations were positive for caring climate toward teammates and rules-based climate toward opponents, and negative for self-interested climate toward opponents. Perceived team ethical climates showed distinguishable patterns of association with prosocial behavior involving friendship experiences and moral self-regulation. The findings identify candidate processes for prospective research on prosocial conduct within and beyond athletes' teams. The cross-sectional design precludes conclusions about temporal ordering or causal mediation.
SN - 1179-1578
ER -