Ballgames and burnout

Abstract

Objective: Burnout is a highly intricate psychological parameter (Cresswell & Erklund, 2006a) and it is difficult to gauge within sports setting (Ewing and Seefeldt, 2002) though very limited amount of researches undertaken (Cresswell & Erklund, 2006b, Fraser-Thomas, Côté & Deakin, 2005). In this recent decade, burnout has placed as an important topic in the field of sports psychology and discussed in length about its exploration among the upcoming youth athletes (Brandonn S. Harris, 2005; Cresswell & Erklund, 2006a). Hence the researchers of this study were interested to conduct this present study due to the social circumstances in India and the very limited understanding of burnout among the Indian youth athletes. Methods: To carry out the overarching aim of this study, the investigation emphasis on the comparison of burnout level among the youth ball game players. A sample of total 215 Male athletes participated in this study. All subjects were represented from three sports groups such as football, basketball and volleyball. Out of 215 athletes (n=70) were footballers, (n=65) were basketball and (n=80) were volleyball players. The age of the participants ranged between 14 to 18 years. All subjects participated in the school state level competitions under Indian Certificate of Secondary Education Board (ICSE). An instrument used as a tool: Athlete Burnout Questionnaire (ABQ) developed by Raedeke (1997) and Raedeke & Smith (2001), was administered to measure the levels of burnout of the ballgame players. Results: For statistical analysis and interpretation of the data; descriptive statistics such as mean, SD, SE were applied. To see the correlation for all the three sub-factors of the burnout, bivariate correlation (Person Correlation) among all the ball game players was carried out. Further, to see the comparative level of burnout among the three ballgame groups in the sub-factors of reduced sense of accomplishment, emotional and physical exhaustion and devaluation separately; One-way analysis of variance (F-test) was used. The mean difference was tested at.05 level of significance. To find out the pairwise and Critical difference of mean comparison, Least Significant Difference (LSD) technique for equal sample was applied. Conclusions: The sub-factors on emotion, physical exhaustion and devaluation of burnout showed significant differences among the volleyball, basketball and football players. © JPES.