Factors influencing college students’ willingness to participate in sports-based disability assistance volunteer services

Sports-based disability assistance volunteer services play a crucial role in promoting social inclusion and harmonious development, with college students serving as the primary participant group in such initiatives. To explore the underlying mechanisms driving university students’ participation in these volunteer services, this study constructs an extended Theory of Planned Behavior model. Building upon the traditional constructs of the Theory of Planned Behavior (Behavioral Attitude, Subjective Norms, Perceptual-Behavioral Control, and Willingness to Participate), this model introduces the core variable Level of Awareness. Data analysis was conducted using structural equation modeling and mediation analysis based on questionnaires collected from 697 college students in China. The structural model demonstrated good fit. Key findings are as follows: The SEM model fit well: RMSEA = 0.06, CFI = 0.95. Level of Awareness significantly and directly influenced Willingness to Participate, while also significantly and positively predicting Behavioral Attitude, Subjective Norms, and Perceptual-Behavioral Control. Concurrently, Behavioral Attitude (β = 0.31, p < 0.001), Subjective Norms (β = 0.30, p < 0.01), and Perceptual-Behavioral Control (β = 0.25, p < 0.01) significantly predicted Willingness to Participate, partially mediating this relationship. This study confirms that Level of Awareness is a key antecedent variable for stimulating behavioral intention, providing new theoretical perspectives and practical insights for recruiting and mobilizing youth volunteers in Chinese universities or official social organizations: (1) Factors that influence the level of awareness of sports programs for people with disabilities significantly affect the intention to participate; higher levels of awareness are associated with stronger intentions to participate. (2) The level of awareness, as a core factor, positively influences behavioral attitude, subjective norms, perceptual-behavioral control, and willingness to participate, and therefore constitutes the core of the theoretical model. (3) Behavioral attitude, subjective norms, and perceptual-behavioral control each significantly influence willingness to participate; the path coefficients for behavioral attitude and subjective norms are slightly larger than the path coefficient for perceptual-behavioral control. These three variables mediate the relationship between the level of awareness and intention to participate in sports-based volunteer services for people with disabilities.