Stress and passion predict burnout in regular exercisers

Athlete burnout is a growing concern in sports psychology. However, the joint associations of stress, harmonious passion, and obsessive passion with burnout outcomes, particularly across burnout dimensions, have received limited attention.

This cross-sectional study examined how stress, harmonious passion, and obsessive passion predict overall burnout and its three main components using survey data from 345 regular exercisers.

Multiple regression analyses revealed that stress, obsessive passion, and harmonious passion significantly predicted 'exhaustion' (R² = .21): stress and obsessive passion were significant positive predictors (β = .16, p = .001; β = .34, p < .001), while harmonious passion was a strong negative predictor (β = -.43, p < .001). For "reduced sense of accomplishment", stress and harmonious passion were significant predictors (β = .24, p < .001; β = -.34, p < .001; R² = .16), whereas obsessive passion showed no unique effect. Regarding "sport devaluation", all three predictors were significant (R² = .24): stress and obsessive passion were positively related (β = .17, p < .001; β = .22, p < .001), while harmonious passion was negatively associated with devaluation (β = -.50, p < .001).

These findings suggest that pressure and passion orientations can significantly influence regular exercisers' susceptibility to burnout. Reducing stress and fostering harmonious passion may help protect regular exercisers from burnout.