Abstract
Under an observational, transversal, and descriptive design, the study analyze the degree of adjustment of the perceptions of fear of failure as a mediating variable of the estimated relationship between sporting commitment and the appearance of burnout in young handball players in a competitive context. The sample included a total of 479 youth category handball players (250 boys and 229 girls) selected to compete in the Spanish Regional Championships. The age range was 16 (40.1%)−17 (59.9%) years old (M = 16.60; SD = 0.50). With regard to the years of experience variable, 85.4% stated that they have more than 5 years of experience at the federated handball player level. The Spanish version of Performance Failure Appraisal Inventory (PFAI), Inventory Athletes Burnout Revised (IBD-R), and Sport Commitment Questionnaire (SCQE) were used to assess fear of failure. The correlation patterns evidence that commitment is negative and significantly associated with emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and fear of failure and positively associated with reduced sense of personal accomplishment. In the standardized direct effect, negative and significant effects were observed between commitment and fear of failure, fear of failure with emotional exhaustion and depersonalization, and on the contrary, a negative and significant effect was observed between fear of failure and reduced sense of personal accomplishment. The evaluated athletes reflect a positive psychological disposition, show pride in having been selected by their territorial teams and reflect a high desire to show their sporting qualities. Despite the emergence of cognitive-emotional processes associated with fear of failure (e.g., shame, fear of criticism), this has been observed to protect the sense of self-fulfillment through sport effort, although it also has impacts on further emotional exhaustion and loss of value of sport effort.
Highlights
Fear of failure appears above all in a competitive sport environment, precisely because of the combination of the personal desire to achieve goals or tasks, and the cognitive uncertainty of being able to achieve them (Correia, 2018)
Taking into account that most of the sport actions of young athletes are regularly evaluated under a performance and success criterion by external figures (Sagar et al, 2007), sport experience selfperception will be oriented toward the feeling of fear of making a mistake, when it is associated with the appearance of a feeling of shame (Gómez-López et al, 2019), ridicule (Eitzen, 2016), or embarrassment (Ellison and Partridge, 2012)
With an observational and descriptive design of a transversal nature, the aim of this study was to analyze the degree of adjustment of the perceptions of the fear of failure as a mediating variable of the estimated relationship between sporting commitment and the appearance of burnout in young handball players in a competitive context, hoping to describe a hypothesized model (Figure 1) that reflected a negative effect of the devaluation of the fear of failure, capable of increasing the response of burnout in young athletes who show greater commitment
Summary
Fear of failure appears above all in a competitive sport environment, precisely because of the combination of the personal desire to achieve goals or tasks, and the cognitive uncertainty of being able to achieve them (Correia, 2018). Taking into account that most of the sport actions of young athletes are regularly evaluated under a performance and success criterion by external figures (Sagar et al, 2007), sport experience selfperception will be oriented toward the feeling of fear of making a mistake, when it is associated with the appearance of a feeling of shame (Gómez-López et al, 2019), ridicule (Eitzen, 2016), or embarrassment (Ellison and Partridge, 2012) Due to this external evaluation and the excessive value that the player grants (especially during the game, and in the face of a decrease in performance), insecurity feelings, anxiety-stress, and avoidance behaviors will appear with more intensity (MorenoMurcia and Conte, 2011). Failure itself would not have negative connotations if it were not for the cognitive over-evaluation (mainly of others) and aversive consequences that the athlete experiences toward his or her self-worth (Bélanger et al, 2013; Granz et al, 2019)
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