engleski

Burnout among young athletes: The role of coping styles and perfectionism

Sport participation has many favorable psychosocial effects. However, adolescents involved in sport may experience excessive stress and pressure to win or to attain perfect performance. Consequently, young talented athletes are considered to be particularly vulnerable to burnout. The aim of the study was to examine the mediating role of coping styles in the relation between perfectionism (adaptive and maladaptive) and different indicators of athletes’ burnout. The sample consisted of 235 young talented athletes, aged 14 to 19 years (M = 16.60, SD = 1.32). Participants filled out Multidimensional inventory of perfectionism in sport, Athlete burnout questionnaire and Coping with stressful situations questionnaire for adolescents. Results showed that adaptive and maladaptive perfectionism are differently related to indicators of athletes’ burnout. Adaptive perfectionism directly predicted lower levels of sport devaluation. Directly and indirectly (with problem focused coping as a mediator) it predicted lower levels of reduced sense of accomplishment and exhaustion. Furthermore, adaptive perfectionism was positively related to problem and emotion focused coping. On the contrary, maladaptive perfectionism predicted only avoidance as coping style. Maladaptive perfectionism directly predicted all indicators of athletes’ burnout, higher levels of reduced sense of accomplishment, sport devaluation and exhaustion. Additionally, results indicated that problem focused coping is the most effective coping style, predictive of lower levels of reduced sense of accomplishment and exhaustion, while avoidance was the least adaptive, predictive of higher levels of reduced sense of accomplishment, sport devaluation and exhaustion. The different patterns of results obtained for two perfectionism types emphasize the importance of differentiating between adaptive and maladaptive perfectionism in research as well as in creating interventions aimed at reducing burnout among young athletes.

adaptive perfectionism, maladaptive perfectionism, burnout, coping styles, sport

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