Purpose

The concept of sport team identification has been widely used as a theoretical framework in explaining sport fan behavior. However, limited attention has been devoted to the consequences of distant (i.e., foreign) team identification. The purpose of the current research was to examine the way in which fans (local and distant) can increase their levels of collective and personal self-esteem due to their team identification.

Design/methodology/approach

Data were accumulated from three Greek websites (N = 742). Among them, 623 subjects were grouped as local and 119 as distant football fans. A structural invariance analysis was followed.

Findings

The results revealed how team identification, enduring team-related social connections, and basking in reflected glory are interrelated to affect collective and finally personal self-esteem. Moreover, no differences were found between local and distant fans regarding the paths from eam identification to collective self-esteem and from collective self-esteem to personal self-esteem.

Originality/value

This is one of the first endeavors to examine the psychological consequences of distant team identification and to test the invariance across local and distant fans concerning the mechanisms that their personal self-esteem can be enhanced because their psychological connection to their favorite sport team.

中文翻译：

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通过运动队识别提升自尊心：一项关于本地和远距离体育迷的研究

目的

运动队识别的概念已被广泛用作解释运动迷行为的理论框架。但是，对远距离（即，外国）团队识别的后果的关注很少。当前研究的目的是研究粉丝（本地和远方）由于团队认同而可以提高集体和个人自尊水平的方式。

设计/方法/方法

数据来自三个希腊网站（N  = 742）。其中，将623个主题分组为本地对象，将119个主题分组为远程足球迷。进行结构不变性分析。

发现

结果揭示了团队认同，持久的团队相关社会关系以及沉浸在荣耀中的反射是如何相互关联的，从而影响集体以及个人的自尊。此外，在从自我识别到集体自尊以及从集体自尊到个人自尊的路径上，本地和远方爱好者之间均未发现差异。

创意/价值

这是检查远距离球队认同的心理后果并测试本地和远距离球迷关于他们的个人自尊可以增强的机制的首要努力之一，因为他们与自己喜欢的运动队之间的心理联系可以得到增强。