The role of teammate burnout on athlete burnout: The mediating effect of coach-athlete relationship quality

Abstract: Within organizational psychology, previous research has shown that there is a relationship between burnout on team-level and individual team members’ burnout, but little is known if this contagiousness of burnout is also relevant within sport contexts. Therefore, the first aim of the present study was to examine the effect of perceived teammate burnout on athletes perceptions of their own burnout. Furthermore, previous research has suggested that highquality coach-athlete relationship has several positive outcomes for the athlete. Recently, researchers have found evidence that a high-quality coach-athlete relationship is linked with less symptoms of burnout in athletes. Therefore, the second aim was to investigate whether a high-quality coach-athlete relationship can mediate the relationship between perceived teammate burnout and individual burnout. Male and female athletes (N=102) performing five different competitive team sports at different levels participated in a cross-sectional study and completed questionnaires measuring individual athlete burnout, perceptions of teammates’ burnout and the quality of perceived coach-athlete relationship. The mediation regression analysis showed that the regression between perceived teammate burnout and individual burnout was significant. No mediation effect of quality of coach-athlete relationship was found when applying a Sobel test. The findings support the preliminary research on burnout contagiousness within the field of sport and to further examine the relationship between quality of coach-athlete relationship and athlete burnout more research is encouraged.