Adolescent engagement versus dropout: Can we reverse engineer burnout symptoms?

In my proposed research, I aim to investigate why age grade rugby union players play their sport and

what they look for from their coaches, by ways of emotional support and learning assistance

throughout these critical years of development. I aim to address the current types of learning

environments and roles coaches offer and compare against what are expected or sought after from

their adolescent elite players or athletes in the form of qualitative study. With this in mind, this

current piece of writing shall look at athlete burnout, the causes for player burnout and how this

contributes to athlete dropout or reduced enjoyment and performance.

Radeke (1997) identified the main symptoms of athlete burnout syndrome, which results in player

illness, injury or most applicable for my research, dropout. These symptoms are emotional and

physical exhaustion, sport depersonalisation or devaluation and a reduced sense of accomplishment.

Thibaut and Kelly (1989) recognised burnout as “a consequence of chronic stress and exposure to a

point where unfavourable cost-benefit ratio for sport engagement”. For my studies, I aim to

investigate why players play their sport and what they look for from coaches and environments;

recognising symptoms of burnout or dropout can allow me to create potential hypotheses for why

elite players remain engaged and motivated to remain in their sport and what can be offered to

them in ways of emotional support and mutual sense of accomplishment in rugby.

Athlete burnout results from “chronically frustrated or unfulfilled basic physiological needs”

(Cresswell, 2006) and “denotes a negative emotional reaction to sport participation” (Gustafsson,

Kenttä, Hassmén, & Lundqvist, 2007). Deci and Ryan recognised these basic physiological needs as

autonomy, competence and relatedness or connection to others. Satisfying these basic needs shall

“foster self determined motivation” (Hollembeak, 2005) and has been associated with “higher self-

esteem, higher task engagement and lower anxiety” (Deci, 2001), which allow athletes or players to

develop intrinsically defined motivation for goals or development within their sport. Basic needs

satisfaction shall also result in positive psychological consequences such as adaptive coping

strategies for personal development and flow experiences, ideal for player development and both

consequences required for specialising adolescent athletes as part of personal development.

However, intrinsic motivation is not the only reason for lower levels of athlete burnout; Lonsdale’s

research found autonomous extrinsic motivations, such as intergrated or identified regulators, also

resulted in lower levels of athlete burnout. Therefore, ideas such as players being able to express a

sense of themselves or achieving personal valued outcomes could be areas to increase athlete

engagement to sports or reduce levels of dropout from rugby if adopted or encouraged.

Within Lonsdale’s research, he recognised that “self determined motivation moderates the

relationships that competence and autonomy had with exhaustion” (Lonsdale, 2009); both

emotional exhaustion and devaluation were related to unfulfilled or lack of self determined

motivations. Athlete devaluation to sport, regarded as “perhaps most cognitive of burnout

dimensions” (Lemyre, 2006), has strong links to lack of autonomy (such as feelings of choice and self-

directedness in sport development) and competence (perceptions of effectiveness in sport or team).

Lonsdale’s research also found greater or stronger links to devaluation through lack of autonomy. In

another rugby specific study, Cresswell and Eklund found that “reduced accomplishment and

devaluation featured most prominently” in their research compared to previous research (Cresswell,

2006). Hodge’s research echoed “high burnout players (investigated) had lower competence and

autonomy scores yet didn’t report different relatedness (connection to others) scores” (Hodge,

2008). He also found that athletes needs satisfactions were impacted by reduced sense of

accomplishment and sport devaluation, similar to other research. Ryan and Deci (2000) also believed

“physiological need for relatedness may play a more distal role than competence and autonomy”.

Areas in which these research areas apply to my proposed research revolve around what athletes

are looking for to remain engaged and involved in their sport and what coaches can offer in ways of

support and feedback to satisfy competence and autonomy requirements. Gustafsson reported

findings that team sport male athletes showed higher burnout scores (compared to individual

athletes) based on emotional and physical exhaustion and devaluation of coach and co-athletes,

while displaying no significant correlation between training volume and burnout scores. Therefore,

the emotional support and perceived efficacy in sport is areas coaches can assist for prolonged

athlete involvement, retention and engagement. From Gould’s research, he gained ideas for coaches

such as cultivating personal involvement with players, offering two way communication, utilizing

player input and understanding player’s feelings (Gould, Tuffey, Udry, & Loehr, 1996). Cresswell and

Eklund (2006) also found ideas such as enjoyable challenges within rugby, open and free

communication with coaches and management alongside few or flexible responsibilities outside

sport allowed and encouraged player engagement and reduced burnout or dropout. Coaches and

administration staff alike should take note from qualitative investigations which found attributions

to burnout symptoms included transitions between competitions or stages in season, which added

emotional and mental stress; pressure to comply and perform in elite environments and negative

development environments, all areas which could factor and enable greater control for players and

coaches alike.

References:

Cresswell, S. L. (2006). The Nature of Player Burnout in Rugby: Key Characteristics and Attributions. Journal of applied sport psychology, 18(3), 219-239.

Gould, D., Tuffey, S., Udry, E., & Loehr, J. (1996). Burnout in competitive junior tennis players: II. Qualitative analysis. The Sport Psychologist, 10(4), 341-366.

Gustafsson, H., Kenttä, G., Hassmén, P., & Lundqvist, C. (2007). Prevalence of burnout in competitive adolescent athletes. The Sport Psychologist, 21(1), 21-37.

Hodge, K. K. (2008). Burnout in elite rugby: relationships with basic psychological needs fulfilment. Journal of sports sciences, 26(8), 835-844. doi:10.1080/02640410701784525

Hollembeak, J. (2005). Perceived Coaching Behaviors and College Athletes' Intrinsic Motivation: A Test of Self-Determination Theory. Journal of applied sport psychology, 17(1), 20-36.

Lonsdale, C. C. (2009). Athlete burnout in elite sport: a self-determination perspective. Journal of sports sciences, 27(8), 785-795. doi:10.1080/02640410902929366