Chapter 21
Athlete Burnout: An Individual and
Organizational Phenomenon
J.D. DeFreese, Thomas D. Raedeke, and Alan L. Smith
“Adults need to pay attention. It’s a problem in youth sports. These kids are
burned out. From 12 to 18, I bet Elena can count on her hands the amount of
weekends she didn’t have anything to do related to sport. She’s missed the
opportunity to be a kid.”
Former burnout case and current WNBA player
Jeré Longman talking about Elena Delle Donne
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distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education.
Athlete Burnout
• A multidimensional, cognitive-affective syndrome characterized
by emotional and physical exhaustion, reduced sense of
accomplishment, and sport devaluation
• Negative impacts include:
•
•
•
•
•
Performance decrements,
Decreased motivation
Potential dropout
Troubled social relations that negatively impact team climate
Mental (anxiety, depression, eating disorders) and physical (illness
susceptibility, substance abuse) health
• Approximately 1% to 10% of athletes suffer from it
• With no consistent diagnostic criteria, that number may be
skewed
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distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education.
The Three Dimensions of Burnout
• Emotional Exhaustion – Intense training and competition
• Devaluation/Depersonalisation – Loss of interest and
resentment
• Reduced Accomplishment – Achieving below expectations and
not meeting personal targets
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distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education.
What It’s Not
• It is NOT depression
• It is NOT sport drop out
• Burnout causes some athletes to quit sport, but not all
burned-out athletes will quit
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distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education.
What Causes Burnout?
• Burnout is considered:
• A reaction to chronic stress  explained within
overtraining and psychosocial stress perspectives
• A motivational phenomenon  examined within selfdetermination and entrapment frameworks
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distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education.
Overtraining
• An imbalance between training and
recovery, often combined with other
training and non-training stressors
• Overreaching
• Overtraining syndrome
• Recovery
• Life stress outside of sport can
potentially impact how athletes
respond to intense training
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distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education.
Psychosocial Sport Stress
• Occurs when athletes perceive an imbalance between sport
demands and their ability to meet those demands
• Stresses = high training and competitive demands, time
requirement of sport, pressure from coaches/teammates,
family dynamics surrounding sport, internal pressure
• This approach suggests that beyond lowering sport-based
demands, increasing resources can be effective in deterring
athlete burnout
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distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education.
Self-Determination Theory (SDT)
• Psychological outcomes are influenced by the nature of one’s
motivation
• Individual choice VS. internal or external pressures
• Motivation influenced by:
• Autonomy – feelings of personal choice or control
• Competence – sense of success and being effective in one’s
environment
• Relatedness – social connection to others reflected by feelings
of acceptance and belonging
• SDT framework suggests that structuring sport to support
satisfaction of psychological needs and increase self-determined
motivation for athletes is helpful for burnout prevention
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distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education.
Sport Entrapment
• Burnout occurs when individuals feel
trapped into the role of being an athlete
• Maintain involvement in sport not
because they want to, but because they
feel they have to
• This perspective highlights that athlete
burnout experiences are most appropriately
considered within the sport structures that
contribute to their occurrence
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distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education.
Burnout Interventions
• Need to be multi-faceted
• Should address a range of antecedents (overtraining,
psychosocial sport stress, SDT, sport entrapment)
• Consider the highly individualized nature of athlete burnout
• The most effective interventions will have a prevention focus
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distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education.
The Job-Person Fit Model of Burnout
and Engagement
This model emphasizes individual perceptions of:
1. Workload – demands relative to one’s personal limits and
resources
2. Control – ability to influence decisions, autonomy, and access to
the resources necessary for performance
3. Reward – incentives (monetary, social, intrinsic) consistent with
expectations
4. Community – social interaction in the form of conflict, closeness,
and teamwork
5. Fairness – fairness and respectfulness of decisions and
treatment
6. Values – correspondence between personal and organizational
goals and behavioral expectations
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distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education.
The Job-Person Fit Model of Burnout
and Engagement (cont.)
• Helps athletes experience engagement
• Engagement: a positive psychological experience
characterized by:
a) confidence in contrast to a reduced sense of
accomplishment
b) dedication in contrast to devaluation
c) vigor and enthusiasm in contrast to exhaustion
• Engagement helps prevent burnout AND enhances
motivation, performance, and well-being
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distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education.
Framework for Tailoring Prevention
& Treatment Strategies
1. Assess the situation
2. Determine what individual and
organizational factors are important
3. Design an intervention plan
4. Evaluate intervention effectiveness
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distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education.