What factors predict burnout in sports coaches? Exploring the role of personal and situational stressors.

Academic Research

Coaching is widely regarded as a stressful position to hold (Robbins et al., 2015; Olusoga et al., 2009) meaning within the field of coaching, practitioners are susceptible to burnout, a psychological syndrome leading to various unwanted issues such as anxiety, depression, insomnia, and fatigue (Maslach, 1982). This study investigates the factors predicting burnout in sports coaches by exploring the role of perceived stress, coaching stress and entrapment as stressors and social support as a moderator.

Analysis showed a strong correlation between entrapment and all three dimensions of burnout, a correlation between perceived stress and emotional exhaustion, no correlation between coaching stress and the three dimensions of burnout and highlighted that social support moderates the relationships between entrapment, emotional exhaustion, and depersonalisation. It has been concluded that if a coach is experiencing emotional exhaustion, it is possible that entrapment or perceived stress are the cause, and if experiencing any of the three dimensions entrapment is a possible cause. In addition to this it was concluded that social support has a positive impact in reducing two dimensions of burnout for coaches experiencing entrapment.