Topics: Athletic Identity, Burnout
Impacted domains: All athletes and performers
Researchers: Henrik Gustafsson, Guillaume Martinent, Sandrine Isoard-Gautheur, Peter Hassmén, Emma Guillet-Descas
Universities: Karlstad University, Université Claude Bernard, Université Grenoble Alpes, Southern Cross University
Intro
All coaches have seen this:
An athlete who once loved their sport gradually loses interest.
They stop enjoying competition.
Their overall level suffers, stalls, and… eventually they walk away entirely.
In sport and performance psychology, this phenomenon is known as athlete burnout—a syndrome characterized by:
physical and emotional exhaustion
reduced sense of accomplishment
sport devaluation (not caring as much about their chosen domain)
While training load and physical fatigue are usually blamed, there is also a powerful psychological driver behind burnout: how athletes derive their self-worth.
This briefing breaks down Gustafsson et al. (2018), which explores how performance-based self-esteem and athletic identity relate to burnout risk in youth elite athletes.
Performance-Based Self-Esteem (PBSE)
This is the driving force of burnout (at least the way it was conceptualized and measured in this this study).
Unlike regular self-esteem, PBSE is “contingent.” In other words, it increases and decreases in direct response to achievements, setbacks, and outcomes that athletes achieve. For athletes with high PBSE, their internal worth is dependent on their achievements.
There’s an obsession to accomplish something of value and believe they have to be better than others to be good enough.
In high-performance environments, PBSE creates a psychological trap where athletes initially keep pushing through symptoms of distress and exhaustion because their self-worth is on the line.
What did researchers do?
Gustafsson et al. (2018) studied 448 Swedish youth elite athletes (average age: 17.6) who were enrolled in national sport talent programs and trained nearly 12 hours per week.
Instead of just measuring different variables, researchers used a “person-centered approach,” which allowed them to identify specific profiles of athletes based on how they experienced burnout, athletic identity, and performance-based self-esteem.
If you’re curious, performance-based self-esteem was measured through the following four-item scale:
“I think that I sometimes try to prove my worth”
“My self- esteem is far too dependent on my achievements”
“At times, I have to be better than others to be good enough myself”
“Occasionally I feel obsessed to accomplish something of value’”
What did they find?
They identified 4 distinct groups of athletes.
Low burnout.
Moderate burnout.
Moderately high burnout.
High burnout.
Here’s where it gets interesting. When comparing these groups, two main factors emerged:
PBSE was strongly associated with membership in the high burnout group: Athletes with higher scores in performance-based self-esteem were significantly more likely to be in the “high burnout” profile. These athletes reported the highest levels of physical exhaustion and devaluing their relationship with their sport
Athletic identity is a double-edged sword: Interestingly, athletes with a strong athletic identity (the degree to which they “think and feel like an athlete” were actually less likely to be in the higher burnout group. (This is inconsistent to general findings in the research.)
Limitations
In line with trying to be a responsible scientist-practitioner of sport and performance psychology, there are some important limitations to consider before we try to apply this information to athletes and teams:
Cross-sectional: consider this a snapshot, representative of data taken at one moment in time.
Western (Swedish) population: other populations may interact with these factors differently and we might see different results.
What you can learn and apply to your athletes and teams
If you’re an authority figure, coach, or program director, be mindful of the environments you create and the messages you share with your athletes. Specifically:
Identify the "at-risk" achievement style performers: Look for athletes who seem "obsessed" with proving their worth through results. If an athlete’s mood swings a lot based on a single practice or event, they likely have high PBSE and are at a much higher risk for burnout.
Break the connection between worth and results: To prevent burnout, help athletes build a sense of self that isn't entirely based on how they performed or what they achieved. Celebrate growth, development, and how they carried themselves rather than just outcome and achievements.
Monitor how your athletes rest and recover: Pay attention to athletes who always want to workout and train. Their drive might actually be a fear-based and related to performance-based self-esteem. This can lead them to ignore the very recovery their bodies and minds need.
Build an identity-rich environment with your athletes: encourage your athletes to maintain interests outside of sport. Athletes should have a safety net of other roles which fulfill them in life. Roles like: student, friend, romantic partner, etc. This can provide protection against a having a performance-based self-esteem.
Key takeaway for readers
Elite sporting environments are competitive and places where athletes feel they are always being measured.
These dynamics are often difficult for coaches and administrators to identify without structured mental performance assistance. And without the proper psychological skills and mental performance support, authority figures and athletes alike can create environments and systems were individuals build their self-esteem on performance and results.
As people responsible for performance, look out for behaviors which show performance-based self-esteem.
If you want the athletes you invest thousands of dollars and hours in to hang around and persist, seriously consider helping them change how they evaluate themselves and upon what their self-esteem is built.
That’s all for today.
Reference
Gustafsson, H., Martinent, G., Isoard-Gautheur, S., Hassmén, P., & Guillet-Descas, E. (2018). Performance-based self-esteem and athlete identity in athlete burnout: A person-centered approach. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 38, 56–60. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychsport.2018.05.017
