Motivational climate, resilience, and burnout in youth sport

Methods: Participants were 87 adolescent basketball and volleyball players.

Purpose: Grounded in the theoretical framework of achievement goal theory, the purpose of this study was to examine the role of some personal factors (perceived competence and resilience) and situational variables (motivational climate) on burnout in young athletes practicing team sports.

Results: Mastery (task-involving) climate correlated positively with resilience and perceived competence, and negatively with the three dimensions of burnout (emotional/physical exhaustion, reduced sense of accomplishment, and sport devaluation). In contrast, performance (ego-involving) climate related positively with the three dimensions of burnout. Regression analysis results showed perceived mastery climate to significantly contribute to the amount of the variability in two burnout variables (i.e., reduced sense of accomplishment and sport devaluation). In addition, resilience and perceived competence were shown to moderate the effects of the motivational context towards burnout.

Conclusions: Overall, findings suggest protective effects of mastery climate, resilience, and perceived competence against burnout symptoms. From an applied perspective, coaches should adopt suitable behaviours to promote a mastery-involving climate.