Exploring Factors That Influence Taekwondo Student Athletes’ Intentions to Pursue Careers Contributing to the Sustainability of the Korean Taekwondo Industry Using the Theory of Planned Behavior

Due to recently declining fertility rates and the social climate of job preferences in professional occupations in South Korea, the number of teenagers practicing elite Taekwondo has decreased, and Korean Taekwondo is in crisis. In this regard, it is essential for Taekwondo coaches to create a favorable environment preventing student athletes from abandoning careers in Taekwondo and for physical education researchers to explore factors directly or indirectly influencing the intentions to pursue such careers. Thus, the purpose of this study was to examine the structural relationships among mentoring, attitudes, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control, and career pursuit intentions by applying the theory of planned behavior, as well as investigating the moderating influence of Taekwondo identification on these relationships. We collected data from athletes with more than a year of elite Taekwondo experience attending one of 15 high schools in South Korea. We asked a total of 270 athletes to participate in the survey. Of these, 250 completed the survey. We eliminated data for 15 athletes due to repetitive response patterns; thus, we analyzed 235 usable responses. We assessed the measurement scale’s validity and reliability with confirmatory factor analysis, Cronbach’s alpha coefficients, and correlational analysis. Structural equation modeling evaluated the effects of four factors—mentoring, attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control—on career pursuit intentions. Additionally, we performed a hierarchical regression analysis to confirm the moderating effect of Taekwondo identification. The results revealed positive impacts of (a) mentoring on attitudes (0.760, p < 0.001), (b) attitudes on career pursuit intentions (0.681, p < 0.001), (c) subjective norms on career pursuit intentions (0.141, p < 0.01), and (d) perceived behavioral control on career pursuit intentions (0.138, p < 0.05). However, Taekwondo identification did not moderate the relationships among the research variables.