Structural equation modeling tested how perceived barriers relating to economic costs, geographic distance, and skill deficiencies related to participation intention through attitudinal and behavioral control pathways, while bootstrap mediation analysis with 5,000 resamples assessed indirect effects. The headline finding defies the assumption that obstacles uniformly suppress engagement. Perceived barriers showed significant positive associations with both attitude toward winter sport participation (β = 0.16, p = 0.001) and perceived behavioral control (β = 0.32, p < 0.001).

This pattern is consistent with constraint negotiation theory, which holds that leisure constraints do not necessarily foreclose participation; instead, motivated individuals deploy negotiation strategies to overcome obstacles, so participation depends on successful negotiation rather than on the absence of constraints. In this framing, heightened barrier awareness among interested respondents may accompany active appraisal and coping processes in which barriers function as mobilizing stimuli rather than deterrents. Among the canonical Theory of Planned Behavior predictors, perceived behavioral control (β = 0.23, p < 0.001) and subjective norm (β = 0.20, p = 0.007) both significantly predicted participation intention.

Strikingly, attitude did not reach statistical significance (β = 0.01, p = 0.792). The authors suggest that attitude and subjective norm correlated substantially (r = 0.661), raising the possibility that subjective norm absorbed explanatory variance that attitude might otherwise have accounted for. Attitudes grounded in direct behavioral experience are known to predict behavior more strongly than attitudes formed through secondhand information, and most residents of the study region lack firsthand experience with ice and snow activities, potentially weakening the attitude-intention link.

The cultural dimension of this pattern is theoretically significant. Meta-analytic evidence from predominantly Western samples indicates that attitude typically exhibits the strongest association with exercise intention (mean β ≈ 0.42 to 0.51), whereas subjective norm tends to show the weakest effect (β ≈ 0.18 to 0.22). The present results invert that hierarchy.

Within Chinese cultural contexts, subjective norm has been documented as a robust predictor of exercise intention, and its predictive strength varies with cultural value orientation: among individuals with high levels of horizontal or vertical collectivism, the effect of subjective norm on intention is markedly stronger (β = 0.316 to 0.349) than among those with low collectivism (β = 0.221 to 0.233). The authors caution, however, that collectivism was not directly measured and should be treated as a plausible interpretive framework rather than an empirically established explanation. Self-efficacy emerged as the most potent single predictor of participation intention, exhibiting the numerically largest standardized coefficient (β = 0.323, p < 0.001).

Its inclusion increased explained variance in intention from 32.5 percent to 40.2 percent (ΔR² = 0.076), confirming an incremental predictive contribution beyond the canonical Theory of Planned Behavior variables. Formal coefficient comparisons indicated that self-efficacy did not differ significantly from perceived behavioral control (p = 0.242) or subjective norm (p = 0.172), but the finding underscores the centrality of internal capability beliefs in decision-making contexts characterized by high uncertainty and novelty. For populations without traditional exposure to winter sports, the self-referent question of whether one is capable of performing the activity may serve as a primary psychological gateway to intention formation.

The study also provides empirical support for distinguishing self-efficacy from perceived behavioral control, two constructs frequently discussed in tandem but theoretically distinct. Perceived behavioral control reflects an overall appraisal of the ease or difficulty of performing a behavior, encompassing external resource availability and internal capability assessments, whereas self-efficacy refers specifically to confidence in one's capacity to organize and execute the behavioral sequences required for performance. In the measurement model, the heterotrait-monotrait ratio between the two constructs was 0.466, and an alternative five-factor model merging them demonstrated substantially poorer fit (Δχ²(5) = 710.77, p < 0.001), confirming they capture separable facets of perceived control: whether conditions allow the behavior versus whether the individual is capable of it.

Mediation analysis revealed a theoretically informative asymmetry. The indirect association of perceived barriers with participation intention through perceived behavioral control was statistically significant (β = 0.076, 95% CI [0.028, 0.141]), whereas the corresponding indirect association through attitude was not (β = 0.002, 95% CI [−0.014, 0.025]). This suggests that barriers relate to intention primarily through individuals' sense of behavioral mastery and resource sufficiency rather than through affective or evaluative orientation, consistent with theoretical accounts positing that perceived behavioral control assumes a prominent mediating role when the focal behavior involves high execution difficulty.

Not every hypothesis survived testing. The hypothesized moderating role of self-efficacy in the barrier-to-control pathway was not supported; the interaction term did not reach statistical significance (β = −0.064, p = 0.151). Two accounts merit consideration: the convenience sample may have been characterized by relatively homogeneous self-efficacy levels, restricting variance and attenuating power to detect interactions, with a sensitivity analysis indicating the study could detect incremental effects of approximately f² = 0.019 or larger.

Alternatively, self-efficacy may operate as a direct antecedent that strengthens behavioral control beliefs irrespective of barrier levels rather than as a conditional buffer. The authors are explicit about the limits of inference. The cross-sectional design precludes causal interpretation of mediation pathways, which reflect statistical associations consistent with the hypothesized model structure rather than established temporal precedence.

Convenience sampling and snowball recruitment, with 67.23 percent of responses submitted from Zhejiang Province, mean the findings may be more accurately characterized as applying to the Yangtze River Delta region than to southern China as a whole. The intention-behavior gap, in which intentions explain approximately 28 percent of the variance in future behavior on average, further constrains what can be concluded about actual participation. Still, the practical implications are clear: promotional strategies seeking to expand winter sport engagement in non-traditional regions could benefit from prioritizing social influence mechanisms and self-efficacy enhancement, and future longitudinal research tracking participants across an entire ski season would help bridge the gap between intention and action.

Subject of Research: Psychology

Article Title: Beyond barriers: perceived barriers and winter sport participation intentions in a predominantly Zhejiang-based Chinese sample

Article References: Zhou, Q., Yang, Z., Zhang, D., & Jiang, Y. (2026). Beyond barriers: perceived barriers and winter sport participation intentions in a predominantly Zhejiang-based Chinese sample. Frontiers in Psychology, 17, Article 1902346. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2026.1902346

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2026.1902346

Keywords: winter sports, theory of planned behavior, self-efficacy, constraint negotiation, China, sport psychology, Beyond, barriers, perceived, winter, sport, participation