Effects of Individual and Organizational Factors on Dynamic of Burnout in Youth Sport

The last decade has shown that burnout in sport does not only concern adults, but it can also affect young athletes and adolescents. The following study focuses on effects of individual and organiza­tional factors on dynamics of burnout in youth sports. Our research was conducted twice at a 8-month interval (at the beginning and at the end of a school year). The first round involved 495 participants, but 379 took part in the second measurement. Participants were aged 14 to 18 years, doing both individual and team sports. The research was conducted in sports clubs, schools of athletic championship, and in sports classes in southern Poland. The following tools were used: the Athlete Burnout Questionnaire (ABQ) and a self-constructed questionnaire. Based on the re­sults obtained, we propose that the burnout syndrome may affect junior athletes, the most suscep­tible in this age group being girls and those practicing individual disciplines. Furthermore, we ob­served that the sports burnout syndrome tends to increase during the school year. It was also found that some individual (e.g., internship) and organizational (e.g., time available during the day) fac­tors were associated with higher levels of burnout among young players. Proper education in this area might contribute to increased awareness of the burnout issue, not only among coaches and athletes’ immediate environment, but also in athletes themselves, regardless of their age or sports practiced.