A Study Of The Relationship Between Social Support,self-concept,and Fan Identity Among Adult Female Soccer Fans

With the progress of the times and the awakening of women’s consciousness,the size of the female fan base is growing,a phenomenon that has attracted widespread attention from the public and the media,as well as the attention of professional soccer leagues and their associated industries.On the one hand,female fans’ identity is an important intangible resource for clubs to enhance their business value,which requires club managers to take into account the psychological and emotional needs of female fans when making business decisions,and on the other hand,the formation and development of female fans’ identity is hindered and restricted by social prejudices and traditional concepts,which have a negative impact on the sport itself and the whole society and culture.This study will investigate female fan identity from a sociological perspective,which will help to enrich the image of female fans and expand the breadth and depth of research on fan identity theory,and provide references for the branding practice of professional sports organizations in China.This study takes adult female soccer fans as the investigation object,and tries to construct a relevant theoretical model based on sports socialization theory,social support theory,social identity theory and brand personality consistency theory,using four variables: social support,self-concept,fan identity and team image,and investigates the internal and external environmental factors affecting the formation of female fan identity through questionnaire survey and empirical analysis,and tentatively constructs the formation mechanism of female fan The study collected464 valid questionnaires.A total of 464 valid questionnaires were collected,and descriptive statistics,exploratory factor analysis,independent samples t-test,ANOVA,validation factor analysis,correlation test,and tests of mediating and moderating effects were conducted using SPSS24.0 and AMOS24.0.This study concludes that: 1)social support has a significant positive effect on female fan identity;2)social support has a significant positive effect on female fans’ self-concept;3)self-concept has a significant positive effect on female fans’ identity and also acts as a partial mediator between social support and fan identity;4)there are significant differences between different characteristics of female fan groups’ fan identity;5)team image plays a moderating role between self-concept and fan identity.The study also found that team image plays a moderating role between self-concept and fan identity.The study proposes three management suggestions based on the above findings: 1)constructing a new social support system for female fans;2)enhancing the subjective sports awareness of female fans;3)optimizing the team brand image and fan interaction,so as to enhance female fans’ identity and make more women interested in soccer,thus promoting the flourishing development of China’s soccer industry.