QUEST, 1996,48,275-289
O 1996 American Academy of Kinesiology and Physical Education
Personal Motivation Gone Awry:
Burnout in Competitive Athletes
Daniel Gould
Personal motivation is a topic that has interested and continues to interest
those studying sport and exercise psychology. Achievement motivation (Roberts,
1993), participation motivation (Gould & Petlichkoff, 1988), competence motivation (Weiss, 1993), intrinsic-extrinsic motivation (Vallerand,Deci, & Ryan, 1987),
and goal orientations (Duda, 1993) are just a few of the specific personal motivation topics that have been discussed in the sport psychology literature in recent
years. Researchers are interested in the area because they hope to better identify
ways that sport, physical education, and exercise participants can develop, maintain, and increase their levels of personal motivation.
An especially interesting finding emanating from this line of research is that
higher levels of motivation do not always increase participation and satisfaction in
sport and exercise settings. In fact, some types of motivation (e.g., extrinsic and
ego or outcome goal orientations) can at times have negative effects on participation and satisfaction (e.g., Duda, 1993; Vallerand, Deci, & Ryan, 1987).
Burnout, a relatively new motivational subtopic thought to have negative
effects on participation and satisfaction, has begun to be examined by sport and
exercise psychologists. It is generally defined as a psychological, physical, and
emotional withdrawal from a formerly enjoyable and motivating activity as resulting from prolonged or chronic stress (Smith, 1986). Hence, when burnout occurs,
personal motivation has gone awry, and what was once an enjoyable and personally satisfying physical activity is no longer seen to be so.
Because its importancehas been recognized in general society for some time,
the topic of burnout is not unique to sport. Golembiewski (1984), for instance,
argues that work-related burnout affects a broad range of variables such as one's
health, overall well-being, and job productivity. He further suggests that the incidence and frequency of job-related burnout has risen in recent years because of the
increasing pace of modem life; extended lifespans that tax available economic,
social, political, and emotional resources for all members of society; escalating
expectations and demands placed upon individuals; and increased levels of commitment needed to be successful in work and nonwork environments. Most often,
burnout has been associated with individuals working in helping professions that
require large amounts of time with people in need, such as social workers, teachers, police officers, and nurses (Freudenberg, 1974).
Given the above, it is not surprising that initial sport and exercise psychology burnout research has focused on examining burnout in coaches (Caccese &
Daniel Gould is with the Department of Exercise & Sport Science at the University
of North Carolina at Greensboro, Greensboro, NC 27412-500~1.
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GOULD
Mayerberg, 1984; Capel, Sisley, & Desertrain, 1987; Dale & Weinberg, 1989;
Kelley, 1994; Kelley & Gill, 1993; Vealey, Udry, Zimmerman, & Soliday, 1992),
physical education teachers (DePaepe, French, & Lavay, 1985), and athletic trainers (Capel, 1986; Greck, Brown, & Shank, 1982). More recently, a number of
theorists (Coakley, 1992; Silva, 1990; Smith, 1986) have suggested that competitive athletes (especially those child athletes who participate in elite level sport) are
also susceptible to high levels of burnout, a contention supported by numerous
popular articles and anecdotal accounts (e.g., Feigley, 1984; Gilbert, 1988;
Greenspan, 1983). However, burnout in athletic populations has seldom been empirically examined.
The purpose of this review is to examine the phenomenon of burnout in
athletes. In doing so, three subpurposes will be examined. First, the construct of
burnout will be defined and discussed. Second, current theory and research on
burnout in sport will be reviewed, and the current status of knowledge in the area
will be identified. Finally, future sport psychology burnout research directions will
be outlined.
Defining Burnout
In the general psychology literature, burnout is typically viewed as "a state
of emotional exhaustion caused by excessive psychological and emotional demands
placed on people in helping professions" (Jackson, Schwab, & Schuler, 1986, p.
630). It has also been shown to be composed of three conceptually distinct but
interrelated components (Maslach, 1976). These include (a) emotional exhaustion, (b) depersonalization or the tendency to become detached from others in
one's work, and (c) feelings of low personal accomplishment (Jackson et al., 1986).
Burnout is thought to be caused by a variety of both personal (e.g., personal dedication and commitment) and situational factors (e.g., role conflict), and manifests
itself via physical (e.g., headaches, sleeplessness)and behavioral signs (e.g., rigid,
inflexible behavior).
Given the above, it was logical to extend the notion of burnout to sport and
exercise professionals such as physical educators, athletic trainers, and coaches,
because these occupations are in many ways similar to those human service professions (e.g., nursing, social work, teaching) that were the original focus of the
research in this area. For example, Kelley (1 994) has shown that today's coaches
are likely candidates for burnout because of the demands and stressors facing them,
such as pressure to win, overwhelming time demands, and role ambiguity. It was
Smith (1986), however, who extended the notion of burnout to athletes. Although
research into athlete burnout is a recent development, it has been a much discussed
topic in the media over the last 20 years, as exemplified by accounts of highly
visible athletes (e.g., Tracy Austin, Bjorn Borg, Michael Jordan) who have dropped
out of their sport at the peak of their careers.
Smith (1986) defined athlete burnout from sport as a psychological, emotional, and physical withdrawal from a formerly pursued and enjoyable sport as a
result of excessive chronic stress. Athlete burnout is the manifestation or consequence of the situational, cognitive, physiological, and behavioral components of
excessive stress. Hence, athlete burnout is not viewed solely as a component of
one's personality. It is thought to result from a reciprocal interaction of personal
and situational factors.
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Another important component of Smith's definition is that not everyone
who discontinues sport involvement does so as a result of burnout. In fact, the
extensive research on children's participation motivation for sports involvement
shows that the vast majority of young athletes who discontinue sport involvement
do so because of a change of interests, conflicting interests, lack of fun, andlor low
perceptions of competence (see Weiss & Chaumeton, 1992, for an extensive review). Discontinuation due to burnout, however, is theorized to be driven by the
athlete's perceptions of excessive stress. Athletes, then, discontinue sport participation for any number of reasons (e.g., sport conflicts with another activity such as
music, one would rather play another sport he or she is more successful at), but
those who burnout discontinuebecause of excessive long-term stress (Gould, 1993).
Thus, not everyone who discontinues or drops out of sport burns out, only those
who discontinue as a result of prolonged stress.
Models of Burnout
Although the empirical literature on athlete burnout is sparse, several sport
scientists have developed theories or models of burnout. These include Smith's
(1986) cognitive-affective stress model, Silva's (1990) negative training stress response model, and Coakley's (1992) unidimensional identity development and
external control model.
Smith 3 (1986) Cognitive-Affective Stress Model
Based on his general cognitive-affective stress model (Smith, 1985) and
burnout research in the helping professions (e.g., Freudenberger, 1980), sport psychologist Ron Smith proposed a stress-based interpretation of burnout in sport.
This model is depicted in the lower portion of Figure 1 and parallels the four
stages of Smith's cognitive-affective model of stress depicted in the upper portion
of the figure.
An inspection of this figure shows that burnout is hypothesized to occur via
a four-stage process. First, some demand is placed on the athlete (e.g., excessive
expectations, high volumes of physical practice and training, pressure to win by
significant others). Second, that demand is not perceived equally by all participants-some athletes will cognitively appraise it as more threatening or ovenvhelming than others. Third, if the demand is appraised as threatening, a physiological
response occurs (e.g., anxiety, fatigue). Finally, the physiological response leads
to some type of coping and task behavior such as decreased performance, interpersonal difficulties, or withdrawal from the activity.
It should also be noted that Smith's model proposes that all four stages of the
burnout process are influenced by personality and motivational factors (see top of
model) such as one's self-esteem and trait anxiety. Additionally, though not depicted, the model is considered by Smith to be circular and continuous where the
coping and task behavior stage feeds back to the situational demand and resources
stage. Reciprocal relationships also exist between all four stages of the model.
As previously indicated, although some individuals discontinue sport participation because of burnout, burnout is not the primary cause of sport withdrawal
for most individuals (Smith, 1986). Rather, based on Thibaut and Kelly's (1959)
social exchange theory and current youth sports research, Smith hypothesized that
individuals withdraw from sport when costs are perceived to outweigh benefits
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relative to alternative activities. For most children this means they discontinue
because of changing interests, conflicting time demands between activities, low
perceived competence, and a lack of fun (Gould & Petlichkoff, 1987; Weiss &
Chaumeton, 1992). Burnout only occurs when costs outweigh rewards and when
the costs are stress-induced.
Despite its intuitive appeal and identified relationships between variables,
Smith's model has failed to generate much burnout research on athletes. It does,
however, provide a useful framework for conceptualizing and understanding the
topic.
Silva 's ( 1990) Negative Training Stress Response Model
Although recognizing the importance of psychological factors, Silva (1990)
developed a model to explain burnout that focused more attention on responses to
physical training. In particular, Silva suggested that physical training physically
and psychologically stresses the athlete and can have both positive and negative
effects. Positive adaptation is a desirable outcome and the main purpose of training (e.g., in weight training we purposely overload the body, and the body adapts
and becomes stronger). However, as Figure 2 shows, too much training results in
negative adaptation. This negative adaptation is hypothesized to lead to negative
training responses, moving on a continuum from staleness ("an initial failure of
the body's adaptive mechanisms to cope with psychophysiological stress," Silva,
1990, p. lo), to overtraining ("detectable psychophysiological malfunctions characterized by easily observed changes in the athletes' mental orientation and physical performance," Silva, 1990, p. lo), and finally to burnout ("an exhaustive psychophysiological response exhibited as a result of frequent, sometimes extreme,
but generally ineffective efforts to meet excessive training and sometimes competitive demands," Silva, 1990, p. 11).
Unfortunately,few, if any tests of Silva's model have been conducted. However, the model provides an intuitively appealing explanation of burnout resulting
from excessive physical training. Hence, more research testing contentions of the
model are sorely needed.
Coakley s' (1992) UnidimensionalIdentity Development and External
Control Model
The Smith (1986) and Silva (1990) burnout models focus primary attention
on stress; however, sport sociologist Jay Coakley (1992) developed an alternative
view. Coakley agreed that stress is definitely involved in burnout. He argued, however, that stress is not the cause of burnout-nly
a symptom. According to Coakley
(1992), the cause of burnout in young athletes is tied to the social organization of
high performance sport and its effects on identity and control issues in young athletes.
In terms of the identity of the young athlete, Coakley proposes that burnout
occurs because the structure of high performance sport (e.g., time demands) does
not allow the young athlete to develop a normal multifaceted identity (e.g., no time
to spend with peers or in other nonsport activities). Instead, identity foreclosure
occurs in which the young athlete's identity is solely focused on sport success.
Consequently, in many cases (e.g., when injury or performance failure occurs),
this sole identity focus on being an athlete causes stress that can ultimately lead to
burnout.
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GOULD
Negative
Impose
Training - ReactionIResponse
(Psychophysiological)
Stress
-
Training Plateaus
or
Detraining Effect
Maintain or Increase - Staleness
Training Stimulus
I
Overtraining
Burnout
Withdrawal
Figure 2 - Silva's (1990) negative training stress response model of burnout. Taken from
Silva (1990).
Coakley also contended that in high performance sport the social worlds of
young athletes are organized in such a way that their control and decision making
is inhibited. In particular, he stated that young athletes' social environments "are
organized in ways that leave them powerless to control events and make decisions
about the nature of their experiences and the direction of their own development"
(Coakley, 1992, p. 282). This also leads to stress and ultimately burnout.
The CoaMey model was developed as an alternative to the stress-basedmodels
of burnout and is important for the emphasis it places on the social environment of
the young athlete. Moreover, specific recommendations for preventing burnout
are forwarded and include changing the social structure of high performance sport
for children, changing the manner in which the sport experience is integrated in
children's lives, and structuring the relationships between significant others and
child athletes in differing ways.
The Coakley model has yet to be empirically tested, although he indicated it
was formulated based on what he learned from interviews with 15 young athletes
who had discontinued their sport involvement. It is unfortunate, however, that
though quotes given from these young athletes are used to support his contentions
throughout the paper, they are not presented in a systematic and detailed enough
fashion to judge the work's scientific merit.
Sport-Specific Burnout Research
Although burnout has been empirically examined with physical educators,
athletic trainers, and coaches (see Dale & Weinberg, 1990, for a detailed review),
it has only rarely been examined in athletes, and never in exercisers. This is somewhat surprising given the significant theorizing on the topic (e.g., Coakley, 1992;
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Silva, 1990; Smith, 1986) and numerous accounts of burnout in the popular literature. The few studies that have been conducted will be reviewed here, along with
related research on athlete overtraining and staleness.
Athlete Burnout Research
Cohn (1990) conducted one of the first studies on athlete burnout when he
reported the results of interviews with 10 active high school golfers. In particular,
Cohn (1990, p. 98) defined burnout as "a negative reaction to physical or psychological stress leading to withdrawal from activity" and asked these young golfers
(M age = 16.4 years) if they had ever burned out of golf. All 10 golfers said they
had burned out of golf at some time during their careers, which resulted in 5 to 14
days (M = 10 days) of discontinued participation. Too much practice or playing,
lack of enjoyment, no new goals to strive for, going into a slump, and pressure
from self and others were identified by the golfers as causes of burnout. These
initial results are interesting and show that athletes experience some degree of
burnout; however, it was unfortunate that distinctionswere not made between overtraining, staleness, and burnout because the active golfers interviewed discontinued play for relatively short periods of time. Hence, they may not have experienced true burnout-only initial stages of overtraining and staleness. The investigation was also characterized by a small sample, and the selection criteria for
inclusion of golfers in the study were not clearly specified.
In the initial study presenting his burnout model, Silva (1990) reported findings from a descriptive survey of 68 Atlantic Coast Conference university athletes
representing a variety of sports. Forty-seven percent of the respondents indicated
that they had experiencedburnout at sometime during their collegiate careers, with
the average number of times being 1.5. The most frequently cited symptoms of
burnout included lost interestlno desire (18%), extensive physical and emotional
exhaustion (12%), and lack of caring (6%). Finally, severe practice conditions
(14%), extreme fatigue (7%), not enough time to recover from competitive stress
(7%), and boredom were the most often mentioned causes of burnout. These results showed that burnout occurs in athletes, and potential causes were identified.
However, the results must be viewed with caution because a relatively small nonrandom sample (n = 68) representing only two universities was employed. In addition, no explanation was given as to how the participants defined burnout or how
they distinguished it from staleness and overtraining, which were also examined
in the investigation.
Like Silva, Coakley (1992) also reported preliminary findings to support his
model of burnout. In particular, he reported results from informal interviews with
15 children (6 girls, 9 boys) between the ages of 15 to 18 years old who had burned
out of predominantly individual sports. Pressure and stress were mentioned by the
participants as primary reasons for discontinuing. However, Coakley indicated that
this pressure was typically related to a lack of control over their lives (e.g., they
wanted to do things with friends, but instead had to practice or participate in competitions). The results also showed that sport participation was closely tied to the
young athletes' self-definitions, supporting Coakley's notion of unidimensional
development of self-identity being related to burnout. Unfortunately, these results
have to be viewed cautiously because the participants were not sampled in any
orderly way (in the author's words, "a sample of convenience"), and results were
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COULD
not reported in enough detail to judge their scientific merit. They did, however,
offer a new and interesting perspective on burnout.
More recently, Gould and his associates (Gould, Tuffey, Udry, & Loehr, in
press; Gould, Udry, Tuffey, & Loehr, in press) conducted a large-scale, in-depth
project designed to examine burnout in junior tennis players. The study was conducted in two phases. Phase 1 involved a retrospective assessment by a national
sample of 30 junior tennis burnout and 32 comparison players identified by U.S.
Tennis Association personnel (Gould, Udry, Tuffey, & Loehr, in press). All participants completed a battery of psychological assessments; a series of discriminant
function analyses and univariate t-tests were conducted. Relative to the comparison players, burned-out players had less input into their training and were more
likely to have played above their own age divisions in tournaments. They were
also found to be more burned out, higher in amotivation, more withdrawn, and had
practiced fewer days. In terms of personality variables, relative to the comparison
players, the burnout players differed on a variety of perfectionism subscales such
as perceived parental criticism and expectations and greater concern or mistakes.
Finally, with respect to coping strategies used to deal with stressful tennis situations, burned-out players significantly differed from comparison players in that
they were less likely to use planning strategies and were lower on positive reinterpretation and growth coping skills. Surprising to the authors was the finding that
the burned-out players did not differ from their nonburned-out counterpartsin terms
of the number of hours they trained; overall the sample was not characterized by
high average practice times (M = 2.3 hours per day). Thus, burnout in this sample
of tennis players seemed much more psychologically than physically driven.
Phase 2 of the project involved in-depth interviews with 10 of the most burnedout participants from Phase 1. A content analysis of interviews of these 10 individuals revealed that two major categories of burnout symptoms existed: (a) "mental" symptoms, which included staying motivated, lacking motivationlenergy,negative feeling-affect, feelings of isolation, concentration problems, and high and low
moods; and (b) "physical" symptoms, which included having injuries, illness or
lacking energy, andlor being physically asymptomatic. Categories or themes cited
for burning out included the following: physical concerns (e.g., being sick, not
satisfied with performance), logistical concerns (e.g., time demands, travel concerns), social/interpersonal concerns (e.g., dissatisfaction with social life, negative parental influence), and the largest category-psychological concerns (e.g.,
unfilled/unrealistic expectations, pressure). Hence, burnout was shown to result
from both personal and situational factors and was mostly psychological (as opposed to physical) in nature.
Individual differences in burnout were also examined in Phase 2 of the project
by discussing idiographic or individual case profiles from three of the 10 burnouts
who differed most in their burnout experiences. In addition, each of the 10 individual cases were examined in light of the major tenants of each of the three existing sport-specific models of burnout (Smith's [I9861 cognitive-affective stress
management model, Coakley's [I9901 unidimensional identity and external control model, and Silva's [I9921 negative training stress syndrome model). Based
on these analyses it was concluded that although important patterns emerge from
content analyses across participants, the unique experience of each individual must
be recognized. In addition, the investigators found that all 10 cases of burnout
examined in Phase 2 of the study could be fairly well explained by using Smith's
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(1986) cognitive-affectivestress model of burnout. This is most likely due to the fact
that Smith's model is the most comprehensive of the three examined. In addition, it
emphasizes both personal and situational factors as determinants of burnout and
places a premium on the athlete's interpretation of the events causing chronic stress.
This is not to say that the Coakley and Silva models are not appropriate
explanations of athlete burnout. Instead, the Coakley model was found to be a
useful explanation for almost as many cases as the Smith model (9 of lo), whereas
the Silva model was a fairly good explanation for three individual cases. Given the
findings from both phases of this in-depth study the investigators suggested that
burnout be conceptualized as a general process best thought of in terms of Smith's
four stages. However, Gould et al. (in press) also suggested that different "strains7'
of burnout may exist within this process.
These strains of burnout are depicted in Figure 3 and reveal that a "psychologically driven" form of burnout existed and was actually the dominant form, as
shown by the fact that the vast majority of athletes in this study had relatively low
on- and off-the-court physical training loads (Gould et al., in press). The psychologically driven burnout strain was further divided into athlete perfectionism and
situational pressure substrains. This resulted from the fact that perfectionism was
found to be such a strong factor of influence in Phase 1 of the study. This also
supports the contentions suggested by Feigley (1984) based on his experiences
observing and working with elite young gymnasts. An especially interesting finding from this study was that some young tennis players were so perfectionistic or
had so few ways to deal with their perfectionism that they perceived high levels of
stress and eventually burned out of junior tennis. Yet the tennis setting for these
young athletes represented situations that most tennis professionals would not consider very physically or psychologically demanding. Hence, it appears that some
youngsters may have an "at-risk" perfectionistic personality that may predispose
them to burnout.
In contrast to the athlete perfectionism substrain of burnout, several athletes
in Phase 2 did not seem to be highly perfectionistic or have unusual trouble dealing with their perfectionistic tendencies. Rather, they were placed in situations in
which tremendous psychological stress was generated from others, particularly
parents. In most cases, this stress resulted from expectations to win, in an effort to
please others and feel worthy-ideas that support many of Coakley's contentions.
It should also be noted that at times this parental pressure was very subtle, so it
might not always be obvious to the casual observer.
Finally, though less frequently identified in this study, several cases of "physically driven" burnout appeared (burnout that seemed to be induced from tremendous physical training schedules). Thus, as Silva (1992) suggested, some athletes
get placed in a training environment in which they cannot meet the physical training demands placed on them; they subsequently experience considerable physical
and psychological stress and consequently burnout.
Although the junior tennis burnout investigation of Gould and his associates
(in press) is the most comprehensive study of athlete burnout to date, it has limitations. Chief among these is the fact that retrospective, as opposed to prospective,
assessments were conducted; as a consequence, the results may have been influenced by memory decay and attributional biases on the part of the participants. In
addition, burnout was not studied in a longitudinal fashion, so specific changes in
burnout over time could not be examined.
COGNITIVEAFFECTIVESTRESS INDUCED
JUNIOR TENNIS BURNOUT
Psychologically-Driven
Athlete Perfectionism
Physically-Driven
Situational Pressure
Figure 3 -Gould et al. (1995) Burnout Strains Model In Athletes.
Overtraining and Staleness Research
Given the paucity of athlete burnout research, it is helpful to examine sport
psychological research in a related area-that conducted on overtraining and staleness. Morgan, Brown, Raglin, O'Connor, and Ellickson (1987), for example, reported the results of an impressive 10-year longitudinal study of overtraining, staleness, and mood states (as measured by McNair, Lon; & Droppleman's [I9711
Profile of Mood States-POMS) in competitive swimmers. Their results showed
that as training loads (meters swum) increased, so too did mood-state disturbances;
and when training loads decreased, mood states returned to normal or baseline
levels. Moreover, these findings fit well with previous research in which Morgan
and Pollock (1 977) found that more (versus less) successful elite athletes exhibit a
positive mood profile on the POMS (higher than average score on vigor and lower
than average scores on tension, depression, anger, fatigue, and confusion), which
they labeled the "iceberg" profile. Less successful athletes, however, did not exhibit this positive iceberg mood pattern. Based on these findings, then, it is suggested
that when athletes become overtrained and stale they shift from the positive iceberg profile to more negative mood patterns and perform poorly. Hence, monitoring
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of mood states may be an excellent way to prevent overtraining and stalenessprecursors to burnout.
In a follow-up to the previous series of studies, Morgan, Costill, Hynn, Raglin,
and O'Connor (1988) took psychological assessments of 12 male swimmers before, during, and after 10 days of increased training volume. Results revealed that
significant increases in depression, anger, fatigue, global mood disturbance, ratings of exercise intensity, and general sense of well-being were associated with
increased training loads. As in the previous research, it was concluded that significant changes in psychological mood and feeling states were associated with increased training.
Finally, Murphy, Fleck, Dudley, and Callister (1990) conducted an interdisciplinary investigation of elite judo athletes in which training volume was systematically controlled over a 10-week period. Results revealed that unlike the Morgan
et al. (1987, 1988) studies, a lack of overall mood disturbance was found to be
associated with increased training. However, POMS anger scores were higher at
the end of 10 weeks of training. Significant increases were also associated with
increased training on somatic anxiety, confidence, and effort. Psychological and
physiological overtraining markers were also found to be related to performance.
Although not directly examining burnout, these studies show that significant changes in psychological states are associated with increases and decreases in
training volume in the form of overtraining and staleness.' This fits nicely with
Silva's (1990) notion that excessive training leads to staleness and overtraining,
which cause both negative physical and psychological states and can inhibit athlete performance. It also suggests that monitoring psychological markers may be
of some value in preventing overtraining, staleness, and, in turn, burnout. Some
caution should be viewed, however, when interpreting these findings: The POMS
research conducted by Morgan and his associates has recently come under criticism because it has confounded the identification of personality factors discriminating athletes from nonathletes with those differentiatingathletes of different levels of ability (Renger, 1993). In addition, results of a meta-analysis conducted by
Rowley, Landers, Blaine, and Etnier (1995) suggest that the POMS-performance
relationship, though significant, accounts for less than 1% of performance variance.
In summary, initial burnout research on athletes, though limited, reveals
that athletes do indeed bum out in sport. And when they bum out they suffer from
decreased personal motivation, poor concentration, and deteriorated performance.
Causes of burnout vary, but typically involve a combination of personal (e.g., perfectionism) and situational (e.g., parental expectations, physical overtraining) factors. It also appears that burnout may at times be more psychologically driven and
at other times more physically driven. Hence, it is inappropriate to only associate
burnout with physical overtraining. Finally, all three existing sport-specific models of burnout models seem to have some merit and should be further explored.
Future Research Directions
Given the paucity of original burnout research on athletes, a number of areas
of future research are clearly warranted. One of the most important areas needing
study is the determination of the frequency and incidence of burnout in athletes.
Apart from Silva's (1990) limited initial research, little information exists as to the
number of athletes who experience burnout and how often they do so. It is also
important to know whether burnout occurs at an equal rate in all sports and in all
types of athletes, or as Coakley (1992) has suggested, that it should be more prevalent in individual versus team sports and in higherlmiddle versus lower socioeconomic classes. If the Gould et al. (in press) strain model of burnout is proven
useful it will also be important to assess whether physically driven strains of burnout are more prevalent in some sports (e.g., swimming, track and field, speed skating) and psychologically driven strains in other sports (e.g., tennis, shooting).
A second important line of future research should involve efforts to identify
and further verify personal and situational predictors of burnout. Given the initial
findings of Gould and his colleagues the role of perfectionism in predicting burnout may be particularly important to examine. Interestingly, Frost and Henderson
(1991) have shown that perfectionism can have both positive and negative effects
on achievement-strivingin sport, so it is likely that perfectionism may play a similar role in burnout.
Longitudinal process studies of burnout are sorely needed given that all the
existing models of burnout view burnout as a long-term process and not a static
event. In the general psychology literature, for example, Golembewski (1984) and
Golembewski, Munzenrider, and Carter (1993) have suggested that burnout occurs in eight stages of severity, composed of different degrees of emotional exhaustion, depersonalized feelings, and low personal accomplishment. Longitudinal studies would allow us to examine this developmental issue. Similarly, Silva's
(1990) training stress syndrome model of burnout needs to be longitudinally tested
to verify the proposed continuum that staleness leads to overtraining, which in
turn leads to burnout. It would be especially important to examine his views from
an interdisciplinaryperspective, adopting a methodology similar to that which has
been employed in the overtraininglstaleness research (in which physiological and
psychological measures are simultaneously examined).
Related to the need for interdisciplinary burnout research is McCann7s(1995)
suggestion that burnout researchers utilize a psychoneuroimmunological (PNI)
perspective to studying overtraining and burnout. According to McCann, PNI research examines the interaction of the body's nervous, endocrine, and immune
systems and would provide a useful theoretical perspective for examining the relationship between physical overtraining, mood states, and immune-system functioning. Unfortunately, PNI overtraining and burnout research, though interesting,
awaits further study.
Future researchers also need to relate burnout to other theories and views of
personal motivation. For example, in the Gould et al. (in press) junior tennis research, burned-out participants differed in amotivation and on several intrinsicextrinsic motivation subscales when contrasted to comparison players. Moreover,
these findings were in many ways consistent with Deci and Ryan's (1985) cognitive evaluation theory of intrinsic motivation. Thus, testing tenets of cognitive
evaluation theory within burnout research seems warranted. Similarly, Smith's
(1986) view of burnout fits within a larger costs-benefits analysis theoretical view
of sports participation based on Thibaut and Kelley's (1959) social exchange theory.
The Gould et al. Phase 2 tennis results, however, revealed that although players
did indeed experience stress-induced burnout, this could not be completely or easily
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separated from other reasons for discontinuing participation (such as changing
interests and wanting to spend more time with friends). Hence, although Smith
contends that burnout is a specific type of cost-benefit sport withdrawal, it will be
necessary to simultaneouslyexamine other benefits and costs of participation (e.g.,
changing interests, need for affiliation) and the interactions between these factors.
Looking at them separately does not appear to be the most productive approach.
Another important area of future study should focus on evaluating the effectiveness of interventions designed to prevent andlor effectively deal with burnout.
For example, young athletes who are in the process of or at risk of burning out of
sport could be identified and interventions designed to help them cope with stress
(e.g., deal with their perfectionism, learn to deal with expectations of others) and
assess their effectiveness. Or, in accordance with the recommendationsof Coakley
(1990), programmatic changes could be made such as giving elite young athletes
more input and control into decision making, developing more balance in their
lives, and examining the subsequent effects on the incidence and frequency of
burnout.
Finally, given the importance of exercise in our society, burnout should also
be examined in exercise populations. This is especially important in light of the
literature that suggests that individuals may become addicted to exercise (Sachs,
1981). Do exercisers bum out? What individuals are susceptible to exercise-induced burnout? What factors predict burnout in exercisers, and how can exerciseinduced burnout be prevented? All these questions remain unexplored and await
investigation.
Conclusion
Personal motivation is a prerequisite for participation in sport. Moreover,
for sport participants to reap the physical, social, and psychological benefits of
sport participation we must not only develop an understanding of strategies for
enhancing personal motivation, but also develop ways in which personal motivation can go awry. Initial research efforts on athlete burnout have begun to tell us
how a once enjoyable and motivating sport experience can lose its appeal and
become psychologically draining for participants as a result of long-term stress.
However, knowledge in this area is in its infancy, and much remains to be done;
physical educators, sport scientists, and kinesiologists need to initiate long-term
systematic research efforts in this area. it is hoped that this manuscript facilitates
research in this important area.
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Note
' It must be recognized that Silva (1990) defines overtraining and staleness differently than Morgan and his associates (1987, 1988). However, the general notion that increased physical training leads to disturbances in psychological states and staleness is similar.
Acknowledgments
The author would like to thank Ken Hodge, Russ Medbury, and Tara Edwards for their
helpful comments and feedback on earlier versions of this manuscript.