立教大学

I am a behavioral scientist and an established researcher in two key areas. The primary area is Sport and Exercise Psychology. My specific focus within Sport and Exercise Psychology is on the relationship between body and mind. This includes (1) how physical activity, including sport and exercise, affects physical and psychological well-being and human development, and (2) examination of the factors that are associated with optimal functioning. In the quest to find answers to those questions, I have conducted extensive research on well-functioning experiences in physical activity settings from psychological perspectives.

The second key research area I am established in is Positive Psychology. As an educator, I am interested in how practitioners (e.g., educators, coaches, health promoters) can assist and motivate others in developing a growth-oriented mindset. This mindset motivates individuals to accept new challenges proactively and to learn skills to perform well so that they can thrive on living and better exploit their potential. Situations in which individuals are acting with focused and intense involvement is called ‘flow’ or active engagement. I am a leading researcher on flow (active engagement). Well-being and flow are central concepts of positive psychology. I use physical activity (e.g., sport and exercise) as a vehicle for fostering the principles of personal growth across the lifespan.

My excellence in research is well recognized in the relevant fields. I have been appointed as a Co-Editor for Journal of Happiness Studies since July 2020, one of top journals in social sciences (5-year Impact Factor: 4.90; 9^th/110 in social sciences). I have also served on the editorial board for The Sport Psychologist, a leading international journal in sport psychology (5-year Impact Factor: 2.00). Furthermore, I am a recipient of the Excellence in Research Award 2021 by the National Institute of Education (NIE), Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. NIE is a world-leading educational institution and ranked 11^th globally in Education and Training, according to the QS ranking 2023.

I have supervised 55 students for their research projects in Japan, Australia, and Singapore thus far. I initially supervised 5 undergraduate students for their final year projects (FYPs) at Ochanomizu University, Japan. When I was a PhD candidate at the University of Queensland (the 2^nd rank in Sport-Related Subjects in the world) in Australia, I was fortunate to supervise 2 postgraduate students (1 Master of Philosophy student and 1 PhD student). In Singapore, I supervised 5 postgraduate students (3 MSc by Research students and 2 PhD students) for their research projects and 43 undergraduate students’ FYPs at Nanyang Technological University (NTU). All the students (3 PhD students, 4 Master students, and 48 undergraduate students) completed their degrees successfully.

Under my guidance, 9 student-related projects were published in peer-reviewed journals. Of nine papers, seven papers below were published in Q1 journals (top 25% journals). Moreover, two papers on PE-related topics (Ashley & Kawabata, 2023; Lye & Kawabata, 2022) were published in Top 10% journals in Education. One of them (Ashley & Kawabata, 2023) is the paper from a PhD student’s project I supervised. The article was featured by an online magazine. The other (Lye & Kawabata, 2022) is from an undergraduate student’s research project. I supervised her for the Undergraduate Research Experience on Campus (URECA) at NTU. She was the recipient of URECA Award in 2020. Two other papers (Kawabata & Chua, 2021; Kawabata et al. 2021) were also based on the data collected through undergraduate students’ FYPs. These publications in Q1 journals indicate that under my supervision, students are able to develop and acquire critical thinking, knowledge, and skills to produce high-quality research outputs.

†Ashley, B. B., & Kawabata, M. (2023). Students’ perceptions of fitness testing in physical education across primary, secondary, and pre-university school levels: A motivational profiles perspective. Physical Education and Sport Pedagogy, 28, 76-93.
*Lye C. M., & Kawabata, M. (2022). Perception of boredom in physical education lessons: What factors are associated with students’ boredom experiences? Journal of Teaching in Physical Education, 41, 710–719.
Kawabata, M., & *Chua, K. L. (2021). A multiple mediation analysis of the association between asynchronous use of music and running performance. Journal of Sports Sciences, 39, 131-137.
Kawabata, M., Gan, S. R., *Goh, G., *Omar, S. A. B., *Oh, I. T. F., *Wee, W. Q., & Okura, T. (2021). Acute effects of Square Stepping Exercise on cognitive and social functions in sedentary young adults: A home-based online trial. BMC Sports Science, Medicine and Rehabilitation, 13, 82.
†Tan, Z. S., Sim, A. Kawabata, M., & Burns, S. F. (2022). A systematic review of the effects of caffeine on basketball performance outcomes. Biology, 11, 17.
†Teo, J. H., Burns, S. F., & Kawabata, M. (2023). Developing nutrition knowledge and attitude measures for athletes with the knowledge-attitude-behavior model. Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport, 94, 110-117.
Note. *Undergraduate and †Graduate students I supervised.

As mentioned earlier, I am interested in how practitioners (e.g., educators, coaches, health promoters) can assist and motivate others in developing a growth-oriented mindset so that they can thrive on living and better exploit their potential. By using physical activity (e.g., sport and exercise) as a vehicle for fostering the principles of personal growth across the lifespan, I have conducted intervention studies to enhance autonomous motivation and promote active engagement based on psychological theories such as self-determination theory (Deci & Ryan, 2000) and flow theory (Csikszentmihalyi, 1990).

The three journal papers below (Kawabata, 2018; Kawabata & Mallett, 2011, Kawabata et al., 2008) are good examples of my ability to promote research-practice synergy. These three studies are linked pieces of research which progress from measurement development to conducting an intervention. First, I developed and validated scales to measure flow in Japanese adults (Kawabata et al., 2008). Subsequently, I empirically tested the hypothesized process that leads to the state of active engagement (flow) (Kawabata & Mallett, 2011). Based on the tested process, I finally conducted an intervention study to facilitate flow experience in physical education settings (Kawabata, 2018). I conducted the intervention over 10 weeks using a cluster-randomized control trial design and analyzed the data using hierarchical linear modelling, an advanced statistical method. All three of these studies were published in Q1 journals, and these publications are strong evidence of my proven research capability to translate research from theory to practice.

Kawabata, M. (2018). Facilitating flow experience in physical education settings. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 38, 28-38.
Kawabata, M., & Mallett, C. J. (2011). Flow experience in physical activity: Examination of the internal structure of flow from a process-related perspective. Motivation and Emotion, 35, 393-402.
Kawabata, M., Mallett, C. J., & Jackson, S. A. (2008). The Flow State Scale-2 and Dispositional Flow Scale-2: Examination of factorial validity and reliability for Japanese adults. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 9, 465-485.

“Where there is a will, there is a way.” This is a proverb I live by. It is never too late to make your dreams come true! In fact, I was 32 years old when I left Japan for Australia to pursue a PhD at the University of Queensland. I successfully completed my PhD by overcoming many challenges. Subsequently, I worked at Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore (ranked 26th in the world) and promoted to Associate Professor with tenure.
After staying overseas for around 20 years, I finally came back to Japan to take new challenges. I am pleased to be appointed as Full Professor at College of Sport and Wellness in Rikkyo University (RU). The details of my profile and research impact can be found on the following websites (RU website, researchmap, Google Scholar). It is joyful and meaningful to advance our knowledge and contribute to society through research.

If you are interested in pursuing a postgraduate degree in the field of sport and exercise psychology or positive psychology, please feel free to e-mail me (masato.k@rikkyo.ac.jp) in either English or Japanese. I am looking forward to nurturing you by supervising your research projects and disseminating research findings from Japan by publishing articles in top peer-review journals!



※2023年インタビュー当時の情報です。