The Moderating Role of Sociability and Social Connection for the Relationship between Soccer Participation and Teamwork Ability among Chinese College Students

In order to provide empirical evidence for soccer’s promotion of teamwork ability and to examine whether sociability and social connection have an effect on this promotion, we explored the relationship between soccer participation (volume, duration), teamwork ability and sociability and social connection (SSC). Using the method of stratified sampling, a questionnaire survey was carried out in four universities in Shanghai. All the respondents are undergraduate students, which include the specially recruited soccer athletes and the soccer participants from ordinary college students. The findings from this study indicate that participating in soccer can positively predict the teamwork ability of college students, and SSC can negatively moderate the effect of soccer participation on teamwork ability. The effect of soccer participation on teamwork ability was different in the collegiate soccer athletes and collegiate soccer participants groups. An important value of soccer, which is often overlooked, is the help it provides college students, who have insufficient sociability and social connections, in better integrating into the team and in improving their teamwork ability. We highly recommend that college students participate in soccer to improve their teamwork skills in study and work and to better prepare for their careers.