Psychological associations of sports technology use with technostress, self-efficacy, cognitive weariness, and athlete burnout

The increasing integration of digital technologies in sport training environments has raised concerns regarding their potential psychological implications. This study examined the associations among technostress, athlete burnout, self-efficacy, and cognitive weariness among university students enrolled in sports-related academic disciplines and organized university athletic training programs. A cross-sectional survey was conducted among 1,612 university students majoring in sports-related disciplines and/or formally engaged in organized university-level athletic training programs across universities in Xi’an, China, between November and December 2025. Data were collected using validated self-report measures of technostress, self-efficacy, cognitive weariness, and athlete burnout. Structural equation modeling and regression analyses were performed using IBM SPSS and AMOS. Indirect associations were examined using bootstrapping with 5,000 resamples. Sensitivity analysis was conducted to assess robustness to potential unmeasured confounding. Technostress was directly associated with athlete burnout (β = 0.22, p < 0.001) and indirectly associated with burnout through cognitive weariness and self-efficacy. The path from technostress to cognitive weariness (β = 0.42, p < 0.001) and, subsequently, from cognitive weariness to athlete burnout (β = 0.43, p < 0.001) represented the stronger indirect pathway. In contrast, the pathways from technostress to self-efficacy (β = − 0.34, p < 0.001) and from self-efficacy to athlete burnout (β = − 0.24, p < 0.001) indicated concurrent but comparatively weaker indirect associations. The model accounted for 56% of the variance in athlete burnout (R2 = 0.56). Sensitivity analysis indicated that the indirect associations remained stable unless an unmeasured confounder explained approximately 30% of the residual variance (|ρ| ≈ 0.55). These findings underscore the importance of adopting a balanced perspective on technology integration in sport training environments, where performance enhancement and athlete well-being are considered simultaneously. In student-athlete populations, attention to cognitive demands and individual coping resources may be particularly relevant for understanding technology-related strain. Future research using longitudinal and multi-source designs may further clarify these relationships in evolving sport contexts.