Abstract
Abstract Aim: The present study aimed to investigate the indicators of burnout, to determine whether playing position affects the perception of syndrome dimensions, and to identify burnout prevalence in professional football players. Methods: The participants were 100 professional football players (mean age 24.3 ± 4.6 years and meantime as a professional athlete of 9.2 ± 4.5 years) who were divided into three groups: 27 forwards, 34 midfielders, and 39 defenders. The Athlete Burnout Questionnaire (ABQ) and a sociodemographic questionnaire were applied. Results: The results show that a) the majority of athletes had low burnout indicators, b) there was no difference in the perception of burnout dimensions by playing position, and c) the prevalence of athletes with burnout, whether mild, moderate, or severe, was 13%. Conclusion: The variable of playing position was not a determinant of perception of burnout dimensions among the forwards, midfielders, and defenders. Nonetheless, the prevalence of burnout deserves attention, as the negative effects of this syndrome may exert impacts on health, well-being, and sports performance, making athletes more likely to abandon their sport.
Highlights
Burnout syndrome is a response to the perception of chronic stress[1]
The results indicate that the frequency of feelings of burnout ranged between almost never and rarely for the different dimensions, showing that the athletes had a low propensity for experiencing burnout
The results show that the playing positions did not affect the perception of the dimensions of physical and emotional exhaustion, reduced sense of accomplishment, and sport devaluation
Summary
Burnout syndrome is a response to the perception of chronic stress[1]. Concerns with its potential negative impacts on the performance and well-being of sports professionals have generated a series of studies on this topic[2,3]. Burnout is defined as a multidimensional syndrome characterized by i) physical and emotional exhaustion related to the high demands of training and competition, without a proper period for psychophysiological recovery; ii) a reduced sense of accomplishment, indicating dissatisfaction with one's skills and accomplishments in sports; and iii) sport devaluation, representing a lack of interest and concern about a sports career[2,4]. The affectivecognitive model[6] is the most widely accepted[7,8] and was adopted in the present study. The second stage constitutes the athlete's cognitive appraisal of the situation (for example, being able to interpret a given situation as a threat). This appraisal leads to the third stage, the physiological response (for example, arousal). The evaluation process is continuous in this model, with burnout developing when the resources to cope with demands are inadequate[6]
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