Exploring the Role of Sport Sense of Community in Perceived Athlete Burnout, Sport Motivation, and Engagement

Abstract

The main purpose of this work was to examine the relationships between the sport sense of community, athlete burnout, engagement, and motivation in adolescent athletes, adopting a longitudinal perspective, and using both person- and variable-centred approaches. A total of 250 adolescent athletes were involved in the study. Athletes' perceptions of burnout, engagement and motivation significantly differed across two different clusters: high and low sport sense of community profiles. Consistent with our hypothesis, sport sense of community dimensions (i.e., satisfaction of needs and influence) negatively predicted athlete burnout and controlled motivation, and positively predicted engagement and autonomous motivation six months later.Lay Summary: Athlete burnout is associated with negative consequences for athletes’ well-being, whereas engagement reflects a positive state. The sport sense of community refers to the athletes’ relationship with their sport environment. In this study, we provided preliminary evidence of the protective role of the sport sense of community on athlete burnout.