Sport Fans and Flourishing: Examining the Mediating Role of Sport Fan Well-Being in Predicting Flourishing

Sport spectatorship has been viewed as a relatively passive leisure activity, but it has the potential to provide a multitude of well-being benefits to individuals. To bridge the gap between sport spectatorship and human flourishing, defined as a state of positive functioning in both individual and social life, the authors focused on the role of context-specific fan well-being and conducted a 2-year predictive study using three-wave panel data (n = 417) in professional baseball. The results showed the effects of team identification and fan engagement behavior at Time 1 on future flourishing at Time 3 was fully mediated by context-specific fan well-being at Time 2. Moreover, the effect of team identification (t₁) on flourishing (t₃) was sequentially mediated first through fan engagement behavior (t₁) and then through fan well-being (t₂). The findings reinforce the importance of sport-specific fan well-being for leading fans to flourish in daily life.