PURPOSE: To determine the association between the experience of practicing a sport and the risk of suffering Emotional Exhaustion and Depersonalization.
METHODS: 307 college athletes from a high-performance program in Guadalajara, Mexico, were evaluated. Trained psychologists applied the Sport Burnout Inventory - Reviewed (18 questions and 3 subscales: Emotional Exhaustion (EE), Depersonalization (D) and Reduced Personal Realization (RPR); it brings four possible conclusions: “Low Risk”, “Moderated Risk”, “High Risk” and “With Burnout”) to identify Burnout problems. The years of experience practicing their sport were obtained through an interview with the athletes before the questionnaire was answered. A logistic regression analysis was performed to predict the presence of Depersonalization and Emotional Exhaustion depending on the years practicing the sport.
RESULTS: EE was not related to the years practicing a sport. On the other hand, D showed a relationship with the time of experience in the moderated risk of suffering Burnout Syndrome when an athlete mentioned have been practicing their sport for 7-9 years (p=0.02), 4-6 years (p=0.01) and 1-3 years (p=0.01).
CONCLUSIONS: Burnout Syndrome seems to be a time practicing an activity related problem. In our sample, nonetheless, the time was not directly related to a high risk of suffering burnout scores in the analyzed factors. Those who have most time practicing neither showed statistically significative association with the Burnout inventory scores. We recommend continuing making this kind of investigation, which may give us better information about the time-related etiology of Burnout Syndrome.
Table 1. Association between experience, emotional exhaustion, and depersonalization. | | Emotional exhaustion | Depersonalization |
| | Moderate risk | High risk | Moderate risk | High risk | With BO |
| Experience practicing the sport | >10 years | 0.80
(0.36 - 1.76) | 0.63
(0.10 - 4.10) | 2.91
(0.78 - 10.88) | 4.98
(0.60 - 41.66) | 3.11
(0.35 - 27.83) |
| 7 to 9 years | 0.80
(0.33 - 1.91) | 1.36
(0.23 - 8.17) | 4.77*
(1.24 - 18.37) | 7.70
(0.89 - 66.29) | 2.20
(0.19 - 25.52) |
| 4 to 6 years | 0.81
(0.35 - 1.84) | 1.32
(0.23 - 7.45) | 5.50*
(1.49 - 20.26) | 6.08
(0.71 - 52.01) | 2.61
(0.26 - 26.27) |
| 1 to 3 years | 1.12
(0.49 - 2.53) | 1.78
(0.33 - 9.73) | 5.34*
(1.43 - 19.93) | 10.37*
(1.27 - 84.83) | 6.60
(0.77 - 56.58) |
Data expressed as OR (95% CI).
* p<0.05. BO: Burnout. |
