This study aims to analyze the effects of basic characteristics (such as gender and grade level) on empowering leadership, self-efficacy, and performance among Chinese youth cheerleading athletes and further investigate the key variables within each factor. The study involved 775 participants from youth cheerleading competitions held in 15 cities, including Beijing and Shanghai, with data analyzed using SPSS 27.0 and AMOS 25.0. The results are as follows: First, in terms of gender differences, male athletes scored significantly higher than female athletes across all factors of empowering leadership, self-efficacy, and performance. Second, regarding grade level, junior high school students in higher grades outperformed lower-grade students in leadership and performance, whereas only certain leadership and self-efficacy factors showed significant differences in the high school group. Third, empowering leadership had a significant positive impact on performance and self-efficacy, particularly in the areas of concern expression and participatory decision-making, which prominently enhanced competition success and maturity. Additionally, task difficulty perception within self-efficacy was identified as a key factor for improving performance and stability.This study highlights the essential role of empowering leadership in the performance and self-efficacy of youth cheerleading athletes, recommending that coaches utilize clear vision presentation and contextually adaptive leadership styles to strengthen athletes' confidence, thereby promoting more mature and stable performance in competitions. The implementation of these strategies will provide effective support for coaches in youth cheerleading training and competition management.