E-ISSN:2319-3050

Research Article

Training, Athletics

International Journal of Research Padagogy and Technology in Education and Movement Sciences

2023 Volume 12 Number 01 JAN-MAR
Publisherwww.theuniversityacademics.com

An Analysis of Athlete Burnout at the Intercollegiate level

Kumar A.1*, Deka R.2, Singh A.3
DOI: https://doi.org/10.55968/ijems.v12i01.262

1* Ajay Kumar, Research Scholars, Department of Physical Education, Punjabi University, Patiala, Panjab, India.

2 Rupshikha Deka, Research Scholars, Department of Physical Education, Punjabi University, Patiala, Punajb, India.

3 Amrinder Singh, Research Scholars, Department of Physical Education, Punjabi University, Patiala, Punjab, India.

The goal of the study was to determine the root of burnout among collegiate athletes who competed at the Intercollegiate level. The researcher gave 120 undergraduate and graduate students enrolled at the Intercollegiate level the athlete burnout questionnaire (ABQ). They participated in a variety of sports. Depending on their level of scholarship, the student-athletes were divided into two categories. According to an analysis variation, student-athletes reported varying degrees of burnout depending on the sort of scholarship they received. The amount of burnout among student-athletes without scholarships was highest, while the level among those with scholarships was lowest.

Keywords: Burnout, Intercollegiate Level, Student-Athletes, Scholarship, Athlete Burnout Questionnaire

Corresponding Author How to Cite this Article To Browse
Ajay Kumar, Research Scholars, Department of Physical Education, Punjabi University, Patiala, Panjab, India.
Email:
Ajay Kumar, Rupshikha Deka, Amrinder Singh, An Analysis of Athlete Burnout at the Intercollegiate level. IJEMS. 2023;12(01):61-66.
Available From
https://ijems.net/index.php/ijem/article/view/262

Manuscript Received Review Round 1 Review Round 2 Review Round 3 Accepted
2023-01-02 2023-01-18 2023-02-14 2023-02-28 2023-03-21
Conflict of Interest Funding Ethical Approval Plagiarism X-checker Note
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© 2023by Ajay Kumar, Rupshikha Deka, Amrinder Singhand Published by The University Academics. This is an Open Access article licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ unported [CC BY 4.0].

Introduction

Sports at the collegiate level demand a tremendous amount of commitment and effort. Even in intercollegiate sports, many coaches are adopting a more professionalised approach, despite the educational nature of university athletics. Student-athletes constantly need to strike a balance between their academic obligations, athletic commitments, and personal obligations. Because the demands and expectations of participating in sports can occasionally interfere with every other element of a student-life, athlete's a hectic training season with other components can have a significant impact on the stress level of a student-athlete. There is also evidence in the literature that participating in sports can increase stress levels. Kimball and Freysinger (2003) as well as Papanikolaou, Nikolaidis, Patsiaouras, and Alexopoulos (2003) both mention this. Burnout in athletes can result from a high amount of personal stress over time.

Burnout

Although there are several definitions of burnout, Raedeke (1997) defined it as an illness characterised by three distinct symptoms: physical or emotional tiredness, sport devaluation, and decreased athletic accomplishment. Feelings of exhaustion associated with participating in sports, training, and competition can help differentiate between emotional and physical exhaustion. When an athlete no longer values the sport context at the current level of personal investment, there is a case of sport devaluation (Raedeke, 1997).Due to their effects on individual motivation and morale, these two elements may result in less athletic success. Burnout can manifest as psychological, behavioural, or physical symptoms, with the most prevalent themes being decreased performance, psychological discomfort, feelings of helplessness or entrapment, and a lack of enjoyment (Raedeke, Lunney, &Venables, 2002). (Lemyre, Treasure, & Roberts, 2006; Struhar, 2003).

Causes of burnout

The prevalence of burnout among athletes is still speculative. According to some studies, athletes experienced burnout to the extent of 6–11%. (Cresswell&Eklund, 2007).Gustafsson, Kentta, Hassmen, and Lundqvist (2007), in contrast, evaluated the prevalence of burnout

in 980 Swedish adolescent athletes, aged 16 to 21, and discovered that just 2% to 6% of men and 1-9% of women had significant levels of burnout.Due to the requirement for a high score on each of the three components of the standard test in order to be classified as burnout, the total percentage of athletes who experience burnout appears to be quite low (i.e., emotional exhaustion, sport devaluation, and reduced athletic accomplishment). So, even if student-athletes perform well on just one component, they might not be considered to have "burned out." Yet, given that the severity of the issue is still unknown, this should not downplay its significance (Cresswell&Eklund, 2007).

Numerous researchers have reviewed the literature to look at the factors that contribute to athlete burnout, including but not limited to: increased stress (Lai & Wiggins, 2003), physical and emotional exhaustion (Lemyre et al., 2006), intense workload, injury (Cresswell ma &Eklund, 2006), pressure from coaches (Price & Weiss, 2000), performance and parental pressure (Coakley, 1992; Gould, Tuffey, Udry, &Loehr (Raedeke, 1997) According to Coakley (2009), there are numerous models and theories of burnout, and these causes of burnout seem to be complicated (for a complete review see Gould & Whitley, 2009). Unfortunately, the majority of burnout studies have ignored situational and demographic factors that contribute to burnout (Goodger, Gorely, Lavallee, & Harwood, 2007).

Objective of the Study

This analytical survey was guided by the following two study objectives:

  1. What led to burnout in athletes competing at the collegiate level?
  2. Did male and female intercollegiate athletes experience burnout differently?

Methodology

Measures

A demographic questionnaire and the Athlete Burnout Questionnaire (Raedeke& smith, 2001) were used in the study. The demographic questionnaire consisted of seven items and collected information regarding age, gender, ethnicity, school status (i.e., academic/athletic grade), scholarship amount and type, and current


level of participation in various sports. The Athlete Burnout Questionnaire (ABQ) was developed to assess athlete burnout. The ABQ is composed of three five-item subscales designed to measure: (a) reduced sense of accomplishment (e.g., “it seems that no matter what I do, I don’t perform as well as I should”), (b) devaluation (e.g., “I have negative feelings towards sports”) and (c) emotional/physical exhaustion (e.g., “ I am exhausted by the mental and physical demands of my sports”) participants responded to items on five-point Likert-type scale anchored by descriptor of “almost never” (1), “rarely” (2), “sometimes” (3), “frequently” (4) and “almost never” (5). Internal consistency has been reported previously by the ABQ author as > .70 for the subscales, with test-retest reliability ranging from .86 to .92 on the three scales and acceptable construct validity (Raedeke& smith, 2001).

Procedures

Researchers used a non-random sample strategy to choose individuals (convenience sampling). A link to an online questionnaire was emailed to the head coaches and student-athletes in the training programme at Punjabi University, Patiala, by the researcher with a specific purpose in mind. The participants then completed the demographic survey, athlete burnout questionnaire, and informed consent forms online by selecting the options that most closely matched their circumstances.

Statistical Analysis

After the collection of data, statistical procedures (analysis of variance and t test) assume that variances are equal across each group of independent variables. Levene’s test of equality of error variance was a method used to this assumption. For the present study of 120 participants, Levene’s Test of Equality of variance revealed that equal variance existed across groups, F (44, 76) = .393, p .05.

Results

To evaluate the significant differences in causes of burnout, researcher computed a (Gender) x 2 (Year) x 2 (Type of Scholarship) analysis of variance (ANOVA). The subscales of Emotional/Physical Exhaustion, Reduced Athletic Accomplishment, and Sport Devaluation were examined using two separate ANOVAS. Researcher computed two analyses, a 2 (Gender) × 2 (Year) x 2 (Scholarship)

ANOVA and 2 (Gender) X2 (Scholarship Amount) x 2 (Sport Played) ANOVA, using each subscale as the dependent variable.

Table 1.  Frequencies of participants by sports Played.

Enclosed as Annexure 01

Table 2.Frequencies by type of scholarship (i.e., None, Partial, or Full).

Enclosed as Annexure 02

Significant Causes of Burnout and Male/Female Differences

Regarding the significant causes of burnout, results revealed a significant Gender X Type of Scholarship interaction, F (2, 94) = 3.82, p<.05. Women and men reported different levels of burnout dependent upon the type of scholarship they possessed. Specifically, men (M = 28.12, SD = 2.73) with no scholarship reported the lowest levels of burnout among the three types (None/Academic/Athletic), whereas women (M = 42.29, SD = 3.79) with no scholarship reported the highest levels of burnout. No significant results were found for year in university, F (4, 110) = 1.410, p > .05, or scholarship amount, F (2, 110) = .132, p > .05.

Student-Athlete Sport Participation

No significant results were found for the main effect sport played, F (1, 118) = .645, p>.05, or the interaction effect of Sport Played x Gender, F (1, 118) = .491,p>.05

Emotional/Physical Exhaustion

Regarding potential differences between the Athlete Burnout Questionnaire subscales, researcher found two significant effects, the first of which was a significant Gender x Year interaction, F (4, 95) = 2.929, p <.05. Inter-college male and female reported significant differences of emotional and physical exhaustion. Specifically, inter-college male had the highest levels of emotional and physical exhaustion (M = 16.04, SD = 3.63), while inter-college women had significantly lower levels of emotional and physical exhaustion (M = 11.35, SD = 3.05).

In addition, we observed a Gender x Type of Scholarship interaction for Emotional/Physical Exhaustion, F (2, 94) = 4.13, p<.05. Men with no type of scholarship reported the lowest levels


of emotional and physical exhaustion (M = 9.69, SD = 2.92), while female with no scholarship reported the highest levels of physical and emotional exhaustion (M = 14.82, SD = 3.69). We observed no significant differences for Gender x Sport Played, F (1, 112) = 2.38, p > .05, or Gender x Scholarship Amount, F (2, 112) = 1.77, p > .05.

Reduced Athletic Accomplishment

 We observed a significant scholarship main effect for the Reduced Athletic Accomplishment subscale, F (2, 112) = 3.09, p<.05. Amount of scholarship (none, partial, or full) had an effect on the student-athlete's lack of athletic accomplishment.

Specifically, student-athletes with no scholarship (M = 13.29, SD = 3.72) reported higher levels of reduced athletic accomplishment than student-athletes with full scholarships (M = 10.04, SD = 3.54). We did not observe a significant Scholarship Amount x Gender, F (2, 115) = 2.15, p > .05, or Scholarship Amount × Sport, F (2, 112) = .910, p > .05, interaction.

Sport Devaluation

We did not find any significant main effects of gender, F (1, 115) = .09, p > .05, scholarship amount, F (2, 112) = 1.632, p > .05, sport, F (1, 112) = .11, p > .05, scholarship type, F (2, 94) = .83, p > .05, or academic year, F (4, 94) = 1.86, p > .05, nor did we find significant interaction terms for sport devaluation.

 

Conclusion

According to the current study, student athletes' degrees of burnout may be impacted by their access to or receipt of scholarships. At the intercollegiate level, there were considerable disparities in the burnout scores between groups of men and women without scholarships and those with scholarships. Together, these findings confirm earlier research that highlights the significance of scholarship in motivating individuals (Amorose& Horn, 2000). These gender-based disparities in academic achievement may be the result of a variety of motivational factors, but social support and coaching practises may also have acted as moderating variables in this study. To understand the disparate variances in gender experience associated to academic level, more research is

required. Notwithstanding the mixed results about how gender differences affect burnout.

Annexure

Annexure 01

Table 1.  Frequencies of participants by sports Played.

262p11image001.png

Annexure 02

Table 2.Frequencies by type of scholarship (i.e., None, Partial, or Full).

262p11image002.png

 

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