Development of sport and school burnout among student-athletes across the first year of upper secondary school : different methodological perspectives

Abstract

The present research investigated the co-development of sport and school burnout symptoms (sport- or school-related exhaustion, cynicism, and feelings of inadequacy) among student-athletes during the first year of upper secondary school. Furthermore, the environment- and individual-related predictors of sport and school burnout were examined. The participants were student- athletes (Ntime 1=391; Ntime 2=373) from six Finnish upper secondary sport schools and their 260 mothers and 188 fathers. Athletes and their parents filled out questionnaires at the beginning of upper secondary school. Athletes answered the questionnaires again at the end of the school year, and a subsample of high-level athletes (N=17) was interviewed. Both person- and variable-oriented approaches were used to analyze the data, in addition to a mixed methods approach that combined a quantitative person-oriented approach with a qualitative approach. The results showed that student-athletes were already at risk for symptoms of sport and school burnout in the beginning of upper secondary school. Furthermore, sport and school burnout symptoms increased and became more generalized over time, and school-related exhaustion spilled over into the sport context, which was evident in both the quantitative findings and the athletes’ stories. High individual and parental expectations for a particular domain (sport or school) at the beginning of school were negatively related to burnout in the same domain but positively related to burnout in the other. Sport- and school-related achievement mastery goals protected from cynicism and feelings of inadequacy in the same domain, whereas school-related performance goals predicted cynicism in school over the first year. These findings could be used, for example, by health care professionals for the detection and early prevention of school and sport burnout.