Conceptual Confusion and Potential Advances in Athlete Burnout Research

Abstract

More than 30 years of research on athlete burnout has yielded important insights and questions regarding the onset, nature, and consequences of this detrimental syndrome. Not surprisingly, burnout is considered an important matter, both from a research and practical standpoint. We comment on the work of Ryu, Ali, Kim, Choi, and Radlo, who examined the impact of burnout on cognitive performance among athletes.

The co‐developmental dynamic of sport and school burnout among student‐athletes: The role of achievement goals

“…Unlike expected, mastery orientation in sport was not related to sport exhaustion, which in line with some of the past findings . This is interesting as exhaustion has been shown to be the central part of sport burnout . Recently, there have been arguments that exhaustion should be investigated separately from cynicism and inadequacy, as they do not measure the same construct .…”

“…This was in line with our hypothesis (7) and with the previous studies indicating that those who are motivated by personal mastery may be less likely to experience symptoms of school‐related cynicism or inadequacy as a student. However, similarly to sport domain and previous findings on school domain, school mastery goals were not related to school‐related exhaustion, making room for ongoing discussion whether exhaustion should be investigated separately from cynicism and inadequacy . As anticipated (hypothesis 8) performance orientation in school was associated with school‐related cynicism.…”

“…However, our hypothesis was only partially supported, as school-related cynicism and inadequacy did not predict similar symptoms on the sport domain. The pattern of results may be due to the fact that exhaustion is characterized as the initial and central part of burnout 35,36 and therefore the effect of exhaustion is likely to be evident first. Thus, it is possible that over time cynicism and inadequacy also become significant predictors of later similar symptoms of sport burnout.…”

Athlete burnout: review and recommendations

“…The ABQ has exhibited good reliability and validity in a range of athlete populations [2]. As with occupational burnout, measures of athlete burnout are diagnostically limited since they do not include predefined criteria (i.e., cut-offs) for determining when an athlete is suffering from more severe manifestations of burnout [3]. Thus, current estimates of burnout rates across sports are approximations at best.…”

“…Finally, sport devaluation reflects the development of a cynical attitude towards sport participation. Empirical evidence has led some scholars to suggest that exhaustion lies at the center of the syndrome [3,4]. Conceptual understanding of athlete burnout has been gleaned from the use of several models which have guided extant research efforts.…”