An Examination of the Effects of Athletes’ Social Media Addiction and Sports Burnout Levels on Their Emotional Commitment to Their Teams

The purpose of this study was to examine how athletes’ social-media addiction and sport-burnout levels influence their emotional commitment to their teams. A total of 220 athletes aged 18–25 participated in the research. Data were collected using the Team Commitment Scale, the Social Media Addiction Scale, and the Sport Burnout Inventory. Independent samples t-tests, one-way ANOVA, and LSD post-hoc analyses were conducted. A significant gender difference was found only in the Emotional Gain sub-dimension of team commitment (p<0.05), while no differences were observed in Cognitive Investment, social-media addiction, or burnout (p>0.05). Age group, type of sport, and national-athlete status did not produce significant variations in any variable (p>0.05). Years of sport experience yielded significant differences in total commitment scores (p<0.05), whereas years working with the same coach, number of media platforms used, and daily media time produced significant differences in burnout and social-media addiction (p<0.05). Overall, the findings indicate that although social-media addiction and burnout do not broadly differentiate athletes’ commitment levels, they exert limited yet statistically meaningful effects under specific demographic and behavioral conditions, particularly those related to media engagement and coach athlete dynamics.