Finding flow at the piano: psychological regulation and configurational profiles among art students at Chinese sport universities.

Purpose: This study examined whether general self-reported psychological regulatory resources were associated with retrospectively reported piano performance flow among art students at Chinese sport universities, focusing on mindfulness, self-control, and adaptive and maladaptive cognitive emotion regulation.

Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted with 1,476 art students from 10 Chinese sport universities. Piano performance flow was measured using a piano-performance-adapted Chinese Work-related Flow Inventory, with current-sample CFA-based measurement evidence reported before structural testing. Mindfulness, self-control, and cognitive emotion regulation were assessed using validated Chinese instruments. Structural equation modeling examined direct and indirect associations, while fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis identified configurations associated with high and non-high flow.

Results: Mindfulness was positively associated with self-control and piano performance flow. Self-control was positively associated with adaptive cognitive emotion regulation and negatively associated with maladaptive cognitive emotion regulation. Adaptive cognitive emotion regulation was positively associated with flow, whereas maladaptive cognitive emotion regulation was negatively associated with it. The direct association between self-control and flow was not significant after adjustment. Significant indirect associations were found through self-control and both forms of cognitive emotion regulation. fsQCA indicated that no single condition was necessary for high or non-high flow. High flow was associated with two configurations combining high mindfulness and low maladaptive cognitive emotion regulation with either high self-control or high adaptive cognitive emotion regulation. Non-high flow was associated with low mindfulness, low adaptive cognitive emotion regulation, and high maladaptive cognitive emotion regulation.

Conclusion: Piano performance flow in this sport-university context was associated with psychological regulatory resources and configurations of those resources. These cross-sectional findings should be interpreted as correlational and hypothesis-generating. They identify candidate psychological resources for future performance-education research rather than demonstrating causal, real-time, or intervention effects.