The study of athletic burnout for university athletes development of a new university athletes’ burnout scale
2013 Volume 10 Pages 51-61
Details
2013 Volume 10 Pages 51-61
Studies on sports psychology have reported that burnout among athletes has assumed serious proportions. This problem is a risk factor for athletes, resulting in them dropping out of sports or committing suicide. Thus, there is a growing need to explore empirical methods to measure and prevent burnout. This study develops a new burnout scale for Japanese university athletes and examines differences in sex and grades.
A total of 280 university athletes (males＝112; females＝168; mean age＝19.83; SD＝1.1) participated in this study conducted from October to December 2010. The participants were given a questionnaire based on sociodemographic variables and 28 questions on a burnout scale.
To develop the Burnout Scale for University Athletes (BOSA), exploratory factor, confirmatory factor, and reliability analyses were conducted. Moreover, to examine the statistical differences in sociodemographic variables, Student’s t-tests and one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) were applied to the mean scores of BOSA.
The results of the exploratory factor analysis revealed a four-factor model: Interpersonal Exhaustion: IE, Lack of Personal Accomplishment: LPA, Emotional Exhaustion for Athletic Practices: EEAP, and Devaluation of Club Activities: DCA in BOSA. Confirmatory factor analysis and reliability analysis confirmed that the scale had acceptable fit indices of structural validities and Cronbach’s alpha coefficient reliabilities. The results of the t-test showed that mean scores of BOSA were significantly different between sexes. The LPA, EEAP, DCA, and BOSA total scores were higher for male than for female university athletes. Furthermore, the results of one-way ANOVA showed that freshman university athletes showed significantly higher total scores in LPA and BOSA than did senior university athletes.
The results of this study developed BOSA and demonstrated its internal consistency and validity. Furthermore, the results of the t-test revealed sex and grade differences in BOSA.
Future research is needed to define the integrated model of athlete burnout by an intervention study using BOSA.
