What makes coaches burn out in their job? Prevalance and correlates of coaches’ burnout in Poland

Abstract

Objective The aim of this study was to determine the range of burnout among sport coaches in Poland and identify its personal (especially psychological) and situational correlates. Methods The sample consisted of 174 male and 70 female coaches from 21 sports disciplines, aged from 23 to 82 ( M = 39.00, SD = 10.93). Coaching experience ranged from 1 to 40 years ( M = 12.00, SD = 9.99). Participants filled in four questionnaires: Maslach Burnout Inventory, Coaching Efficacy Scale. The questionnaire of adaptive and maladaptive perfectionism, and Preferred Management Style Questionnaire. Results Coaches reported experiencing low levels of emotional exhaustion and depersonalisation, but high level of reduced sense of personal accomplishments. The latter was observed in 61.06% of respondents. The correlates of individual dimensions of burnout turned out to be: (a) emotional exhaustion – gender, age, deriving financial satisfaction from one’s job, motivation efficacy, maladaptive perfectionism, democratic management style, and the nature of competition; (b) depersonalisation – deriving financial satisfaction from one’s job, building character efficacy, maladaptive perfectionism, democratic, autocratic and liberal management styles; (c) reduced sense of personal accomplishments – deriving financial satisfaction from one’s job, motivation efficacy, game strategy efficacy, maladaptive perfectionism, and democratic management style. Conclusions Our study suggests that sport coaches are not emotionally exhausted and do not depersonalise their charges, but are professionally undervalued. This phenomenon is related to several personal and situational variables.