Relationship between coaching climates and student-athletes’ symptoms of burnout in school and sports

Abstract

The purpose of the present study was to investigate (a) what kind of coaching climates experienced by student-athletes can be found in sports high schools in Finland and (b) how these coaching climates are related to student-athletes’ symptoms of burnout in sports and in school. A total of 414 student-athletes, aged 17–18 years, from 7 sports high schools participated in this study. In addition to background information, the participants completed questionnaires concerning the perceived coaching climate and symptoms of burnout in both school and sports environments. By using latent profile analysis, 4 groups of experienced coaching climates were identified: extremely disempowering, disempowering, empowering, and intermediate. Student-athletes in the extremely disempowering and disempowering coaching climate groups reported higher levels of sport burnout than student-athletes in the other 2 groups. Moreover, they reported higher levels of school burnout than student-athletes in the empowering group. Overall, these findings offer timely insights into the ways high school coaches may play a role in student-athletes’ burnout not only within but also across the domains of sports and school.