ArticleFrontiers in public health2026
Beyond membership: how active sports club participation shapes happiness.
Article in Frontiers in public health, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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3 authors.
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Abstract
Introduction: Happiness has become an important public health and policy concern, and physical activity is increasingly viewed as a relevant lifestyle-related factor. Against this background, this study examines whether the association between sports club participation (SCP) and happiness depends on active participation rather than nominal membership alone. Its contribution is to distinguish formal membership from actual engagement in sports clubs and to examine whether the SCP-happiness association is statistically linked to two behavioral dimensions of physical activity: leisure-time sports participation (LTSP) and venue-based exercise (VBE). Methods: Using data from the 2023 Chinese General Social Survey, the analysis distinguishes among non-members, inactive members, and active members. Ordinary least squares regression, ordered logit models, propensity score matching, and bootstrap-based parallel mediation analysis were applied to examine the association between SCP and happiness and the statistical indirect pathways through LTSP and VBE. Results: The results show that active SCP is positively associated with happiness ( Discussion: These findings suggest that the relevance of sports clubs for happiness is not attached to formal membership alone, but is mainly observed when membership involves active engagement and greater participation in physical activity. Given the cross-sectional design, the findings should be interpreted as associational rather than causal evidence.
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