The influence of college students’ sports policy attitude on sports anomie behavior: a masked chain mediation model

College students’ sports anomie behavior will destroy the regular order of sports activities and restrict the development of young participants’ psychological and physical health. The implementation of sports policy can restrict the behavior of sports anomie. However, implementing the sports policy depends mainly on the attitude of the target group. Previous studies have not paid attention to the relationship between sports policy attitude and sports anomie behavior, and related studies have shown that there is a process of isolation between attitude and behavior, which motivation factors may influence. Therefore, this paper discusses the influence of sports policy attitude on sports anomie behavior and the internal mechanism of sports motivation from the perspective of college students to provide a theoretical basis for improving the effect of policy implementation and reducing sports anomie behavior. A total of 2,340 college students from twenty universities in China across the country voluntarily participated in this survey. The results showed that: (1) sports policy attitude, extrinsic sports motivation and intrinsic sports motivation were both significantly and positively correlated; sports policy attitude, intrinsic sports motivation were significantly and negatively correlated with sports anomie behavior, and extrinsic sports motivation was significantly and positively correlated with sports anomie behavior; (2) Sports policy attitude was negatively and significantly predict sports anomie behavior (β = − 0.180, P < 0.001); Sports policy attitude has a significant positive impact on intrinsic sports motivation (β = 0.053, P < 0.001) and extrinsic sports motivation (β = 0.260, P < 0.001). Intrinsic sports motivation had a significant negative impact on sports anomie behavior (β = − 0.202, P < 0.001). Extrinsic sports motivation has a significant positive impact on sports anomie behavior (β = 0.126, P < 0.001); extrinsic sports motivation has a significant positive impact on intrinsic sports motivation (β = 0.713, P < 0.001); (3) Sports policy attitude can influence sports anomie behavior through three paths: Ind1: sports policy attitude → intrinsic sports motivation → sports anomie behavior, with intrinsic sports motivation having a partially mediating effect (t = − 0.011, 95% CI: − 0.018, − 0.005); Ind2: sports policy attitude → extrinsic sports motivation → sports anomie behavior has the opposite sign of the coefficients of the paths, with extrinsic sports motivation having a masked effect (t = 0.033, 95%CI: 0.018, 0.049), which reduced the prediction of sports policy attitude on sports anomie behavior; Ind3: sports policy attitude → extrinsic sports motivation → intrinsic sports motivation → sports anomie behavior, and extrinsic and intrinsic sports motivation had chain mediation effects (t = − 0.037, 95%CI: − 0.051, − 0.026). The study concluded that educating and guiding college students to form positive attitudes toward sports policy is an effective way to reduce sports anomie behavior. Positive sports policy attitudes can stimulate both extrinsic and intrinsic motivations of college students’ sports behaviors. Extrinsic sports motivation alone may exacerbate the occurrence of sports anomie behavior, while intrinsic sports motivation alone will inhibit the occurrence of sports anomie behavior, but the effect is not ideal. Under the effect of college students’ positive sports policy attitude, if extrinsic sports motivation can be transformed into intrinsic sports motivation, it will have a more desirable inhibiting effect on sports anomie behavior.