The influence of athletes' gratitude on burnout: the sequential mediating roles of the coach-athlete relationship and hope

Liangshan Dong; Shisi Zou; Rong Fan; Bin Wang; Lv Ye

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1358799

The influence of athletes' gratitude on burnout: the sequential mediating roles of the coach-athlete relationship and hope

Front Psychol. 2024 Apr 24:15:1358799. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1358799. eCollection 2024.

Authors

Liangshan Dong¹, Shisi Zou¹, Rong Fan¹, Bin Wang², Lv Ye³

Affiliations

¹ School of Physical Education, China University of Geoscience, Wuhan, China.
² School of Physical Education, Central China Normal University, Wuhan, China.
³ School of Physical Education, Yangzhou University, Yangzhou, China.

Abstract

Background: Athlete burnout is a widespread psychological syndrome in competitive sports, negatively impacts athletes' competitive state and hampers the healthy development of sports organizations. With the rise of positive psychology, exploring the mechanisms of athlete psychological fatigue through the lens of psychological capital has become a focal point of recent research. This study introduces gratitude, a key element of psychological capital in positive psychology, to examine its effect on athlete burnout and its mechanism of action, with a particular focus on the sequential mediating roles of the coach-athlete relationship (CAR) and hope.

Method: A cross-sectional study design was utilized, involving 483 active Chinese athletes from national training teams and professional sports teams. The sample comprised both male (n=251) and female (n=232) athletes, with an average age of 19.24 ± 3.99 years. Participants were asked to complete self-administered questionnaires, including the Gratitude Questionnaire, CAR Questionnaire, Hope Questionnaire, and Athlete Burnout Questionnaire. Structural equation modeling in AMOS 24.0 and descriptive statistics and correlation analyses in SPSS 20.0 were employed for data analysis.

Results: The study revealed significant associations between athlete gratitude, CAR, hope, and athlete burnout. Notably, gratitude was found to both directly and indirectly (via CAR and hope) influence burnout levels among athletes, suggesting a sequential mediation effect.

Conclusion: The findings highlight the importance of positive psychological constructs in buffering against athlete burnout. Specifically, gratitude, alongside a supportive CAR and elevated levels of hope, may play crucial roles in mitigating burnout symptoms. These insights offer promising directions for the development of targeted intervention strategies aimed at fostering athlete well-being and performance, advocating for the integration of positive psychology principles in the management and prevention of athlete burnout.

Keywords: athlete burnout; coach–athlete relationship; gratitude; hope; positive psychology.

Grants and funding

The author(s) declare that financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. This project is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Youth Project No. 62307034), the Key Project of National Social Science Foundation of China (23FTYA005), the Hubei Provincial Natural Science Foundation (Youth Project No. 2023AFB359), and the Youth Foundation of Humanities and Social Science Research of the Ministry of Education of China (No. 22YJC890005).