How Does Coach Created Motivational Climate Influence Athlete Passion and Burnout?

This study investigated the influence of coach-created motivational climate on passion and burnout in adolescent athletes. Drawing on Achievement Goal Theory, it examined how task-oriented and ego-oriented coaching environments influenced the two types of passion (i.e., harmonious and obsessive) and three aspects of burnout (i.e., physical and emotional exhaustion, reduced sense of accomplishment, and sport devaluation). Therefore, the research project had three primary research questions: 1) How do adolescent athletes perceive their coach-created motivational climate, and own levels of passion and burnout? 2) How does a coach-created environment influence athlete levels of passion and burnout? and 3) Do athlete’s perceptions of a coach-created climate, burnout, and passion differ depending on athlete leadership status? The findings indicate that ego-oriented climates, which emphasize winning and performance comparisons, correlated with obsessive passion and burnout symptoms. Conversely, task-oriented climates that emphasize democratic coaching approaches including focusing on personal improvement, effort, and athlete autonomy, promoted harmonious passion and was inversely related to burnout. Leadership status of athletes often is positively correlated with burnout because of their increased responsibility and pressure they might feel as a captain. This research highlights the critical role coaches play in creating environments that foster healthy athletic engagement and prevent burnout in adolescent sports participants.