PURPOSE: To identify the relationship between Burnout Syndrome and the Individual Attractions to the Group-Task (ATG-S) factor in college athletes.
METHODS: 224 college athletes from 11 team sports (134 men and 90 women in an age range between 19 and 24 years old) of a high-performance program were evaluated with a psychometrical battery that included the Sport Burnout Inventory - Reviewed conformed by 3 subscales: Emotional Exhaustion (EE), Depersonalization (D), and Reduced Personal Realization (RPR); it brings four possible categories: “Low Risk”, “Moderated Risk”, “High Risk” and “With Burnout”. Also, these athletes answered The Group Environment Questionnaire (GEQ), which evaluates the cohesion in sports teams in four group and individual factors; Individual Attractions to the Group-Social (ATG-S) was the only factor analyzed, the results were summarized in quartiles, the higher quartile the worst the score. Multinomial logistic regression was performed to associate the categories of burnout syndrome by component and the results of the ATG-S factor.
RESULTS: Statistically significant associations were observed between moderate risk of Burnout Syndrome in EE and D and scoring in the second quartile in ATG-S. On the other hand, moderate risk in EE and the three risk dimensions in RPR were significantly associated with the fourth quartile in ATG-S.
CONCLUSIONS: Individuals who got a moderate risk of suffering Burnout Syndrome in the EE and D factors had more chances of getting a worse score in the ATG-S factor. However, RPR was more consistently associated with worse ATG-S scores. These results allow us to relate some of the Burnout Syndrome signs with a low perceived social cohesion in college team sports.
Table 1. Association between Burnout Syndrome dimensions and ATG-S scores. | | ATG-S |
| | Q2 | Q3 | Q4 |
| EE | With BO | -† | -† | -† |
| High risk | 0.73
(0.15-3.67) | 0.50
(0.10-2.48) | 1.81
(0.45-7.24) |
| Moderate risk | 3.12*
(1.29-7.55) | 2.25
(0.97-5.24) | 2.93*
(1.18-7.28) |
| D | With BO | 1.59
(0.19-13.36) | 2.24
0.38-15.55) | 1.10
(0.13-9.50) |
| High risk | 2.25
(0.56-9.03) | 1.18
(0.28-4.98) | 2.40
(0.61-9.51) |
| Moderate risk | 2.92*
(1.09-7.77) | 1.48
(0.55-3.96) | 2.04
(0.73-5.67) |
| RPR | With BO | 6.14
(0.63-60.39) | 3.94
(0.38-40.44) | 15.35*
(1.72-137.42) |
| High risk | 2.29
(0.68-7.71) | 2.64
(0.87-8.05) | 3.69*
(1.15-11.90) |
| Moderate risk | 2.19
(0.74-6.49) | 2.23
(0.78-6.39) | 3.06*
(1.03-9.07) |
Data expressed as OR (95% CI).
* p<0.05. † The sample was too small to perform the analysis. ATG-S: Attraction to the Group-Social. BO: Burnout. D: Depersonalization. EE: Emotional exhaustion. Q: Quartile number. RPR: Reduced personal realization. |
