Previous studies suggested that athletes' psychological capital level is related to life stress and burnout. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to explore the influences of university baseball athletes' psychological capital on their life stress and burnout and provide practical suggestions for athletes and coaches to reduce their life stress and burnout. In this study, we used athletes' control variables (grade, year of training experience, and training days per week) and psychological capital (self-efficacy, hope, optimism, and resilience) to predict their life stress and burnout. A total of 428 division I baseball athletes from 16 teams of the national college baseball sports league in Taiwan participated in this survey, with a return rate of 89.2%. Partial least squares structural equation modeling was used to test the relationships among the above-mentioned variables. The results showed that the athletes demographics such as grade (β = 0.03, p > 0.05) and years of baseball training experience (β = 0.00, p > 0.05) had no significant influences on athlete burnout, while the days of baseball training per week (β = 0.32, p < 0.05) had a positive influence on athlete burnout. As for psychological capital, self-efficacy (β = -0.09, p < 0.05), hope (β = -0.27, p < 0.05), and optimism (β = -0.20, p < 0.05) had negative influences on life stress, while resilience (β = -0.07, p > 0.05) had no significant influences on life stress. Hope (β = -0.20, p < 0.05) had negative influences on athlete burnout, while self-efficacy (β = -0.00, p > 0.05), optimism (β = -0.06, p > 0.05), and resilience (β = -0.01, p > 0.05) had no significant influences on athlete burnout. Life stress (β = 0.52, p < 0.05) had significant influences on the burnout. Based on our research findings, suggestions were made to reduce the athletes' life stress and athlete burnout.
Keywords: athlete burnout; life stress; sports psychological capital; university athlete students.